


the most beautiful view

by strangeparties



Category: SKAM (France)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Eliott is a model because when is he not, Friends to Lovers, Help me idk how to be funny, Instagram, Lucas is a skincare vlogger, M/M, Mixed Media, Multimedia, Mutual Pining, POV Outsider, Social Media, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2020-11-27 16:17:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20951309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangeparties/pseuds/strangeparties
Summary: Lucas accidentally becomes a beautuber - er,self-care enthusiast, Eliott’s his long-suffering best friend, and the internet just wants Lucas and Eliott to drop everything and make out within the next century.(au; a brief stab at mutual pining/bffs to lovers)





	1. masking (feelings) for a glowing visage

**Author's Note:**

> this began as a vague idea inspired by axel trolling max on ig for his skincare routine... then said idea ran away and transformed into this little monster. but this was incredibly fun to do, and has also forced me to push the boundaries of my own writing. i initially set out to write 'just a social media au with some narration' and then thought 'wouldn't it be fun if it had this and that?' which resulted in various attempts to incorporate a multi-platform/mixed media style of storytelling. 
> 
> thanks go to the endlessly wonderful shinee song 'view' for the title and general mood of the this entire thing; and of course, credit goes to lucas's and eliott's character instagrams, as well as axel's and maxence's public accounts, for the photos which i wrangled into social dummy. i hope you all enjoy ❤️

It starts after Nicolas, his boyfriend of a little over a year, breaks up with him over What’sApp. Not even one goddamned phone call.

Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like _just_ stress. It feels almost like a kind of grief. The only one he’d ever loved in his short life. And then suddenly, silence. No communication, no texts, no returning his pathetic calls. Just punitive silence.

Yes, the stress congealed in him, forming hollow, dark bags under his eyes and rough bumps neatly tucked under his nose. He’d been blessed with an uneventful puberty, skipping the awkward phase almost all his peers had, the period when their cheeks grew angry red spots almost overnight while he was left bright-eyed and clear-skinned. Now, it was as if all the years he’d skated by spot-free had caught up, triggered by heartache.

Eliott tilts his chin up with a light hand, carefully inspecting the patch of skin under Lucas’s nose, no doubt growing exasperated at Lucas’s drunken whining - _Eliott, it’s so fucking ugly, what the fuck, how the hell am I supposed to get a rebound looking like this. _

“What are you talking about? I can barely see it. It’s like… whiteheads or something. Definitely not pimples. I would know.”

Lucas snorts. “_You_ would know? Please, Mr. I-came-out-my-mom’s-womb-with-perfect-vampire-skin Demaury.”

Eliott almost chokes on his beer, cuffing him lightly on the shoulder. “Why is that so hard to believe? I wasn’t a good-looking kid.”

“Somehow I highly doubt that.”

Eliott sounds hilariously indignant. “Really! We only met in lycée so you wouldn’t have known, anyway. I was this awkward, gangly kid with a huge head.”

That may have been so; Lucas could picture Eliott at ten or twelve and on the cusp of his teen years, toothy smile looking strange on his plump cheeks. The years had obviously been kind to Eliott - he’d grown tremendously into his looks. What probably once looked like long weeds sprouting from a stringy body were now shapely legs and strong arms, blue-green veins stark against glowing skin when he flexed his limbs just so; what was once a weird looking face had now transformed into a jawline cut from marble and eyes that had the otherworldly ability to transport your soul into the void if you stared long enough.

Eliott was an Adonis on earth.

And Lucas, well.

If you asked the tens of girls he’d _tried_ to date when he still playing the part of the happy hetero, they’d probably say he was _cute_. If you asked the guys he’d tried to get with - not that there were a lot - his face was okay, passable, maybe even a bit Timothée Chalamet-esque in certain angles. Not that any guy had ever told him this in explicit terms (his ex-boyfriend had said he was ‘pretty’ in that subtly condescending way that made Lucas want to chuck the nearest beer bottle at his head, and that he ‘looked like a bottom, acted like a vers, but made out like a top’— whatever the fuck that meant), but hey. His face got him the occasional hot guy. Not Eliott-level, of course, because _no one_ was Eliott-level, but some were close enough.

“Pfft. I don’t get it. Why isn’t soap and water doing the trick?” Lucas flops onto his back, settling on the carpet. The back of his shirt rides up, exposing his stomach to the cool air. Eliott’s piercing stare follows his every move, but Lucas thinks it’s just a trick of the light when Eliott’s eyes darken a fraction. “You think Nic broke up with me ‘cos I didn’t wash my face enough?”

“He broke up with you because he was an asshole who doesn’t know how to appreciate the best thing that’s ever happened to his sorry, shitty life. And assholes like him don’t deserve the best. We told you so,” Eliott says evenly.

Eliott had never liked Nicolas, but he’d been civil enough - on a good day. On the truly bad days, however, like whenever he and Nic would make up after one of their frequent verbal spars, Lucas was lucky if the ensuing night out with friends didn’t end with Eliott and his erstwhile boyfriend in a near fist fight. They’d spit out the most passive-aggressive, sarcastic barbs they could come up with - from _You don’t really look the type of guy who gives a fuck what anyone thinks, and yeah, that includes Lucas _to_ Oh, how’d you know that little tidbit? I thought all models were airheads. _Lucas had heard it all, and was honestly surprised by how utterly vicious his usually gentle best friend would get in his ex’s presence.

“I didn’t want to say it like this, but you knew this was coming. Honestly, Lucas. What’d you expect?” Eliott continues.

Lucas contemplates Eliott’s words, brows drawing together. His fingers rasp over the smooth surface of his phone lying on his bellybutton, his other hand thumbing the lid of his Corona, his fourth of the night. Finally, he sighs into the air; he doesn’t have the strength to cry anymore and would rather lie down or feel the pleasant buzz coursing through his limbs, both of which he was doing at this very moment.

“Yeah, I guess. I really should’ve listened. Maybe… maybe he got tired of my face, is all.”

Eliott presses his lips together, jaw tensing. He looks at Lucas with something akin to sadness. “Lucas, you know that’s not it. Besides, you—“

“Me?”

“Yeah. This...” Eliott gestures vaguely to his face, then down his body. His long fingers, soft and warm, walk up to Lucas’ face. Lucas giggles despite himself. “You’re beautiful. As _fuck_,” he emphasizes, reddened mouth popping at the last syllable.

Lucas rolls his eyes, ignoring the flush creeping up his cheeks. Eliott’s words and his slow, careful touch spools into something achingly soft in Lucas - something he’d rather not think about right now, or maybe ever. This is one of the reasons he and Nicolas had unravelled, after all; he had always been suspicious of his close relationship with Eliott. “Shut up, you’re drunk.”

“You are, though.” Eliott’s voice goes low and husky as he looks down at Lucas. Something stirs in Lucas’ stomach, not entirely unwelcome, but still. This is too soon, too dangerous.

He stands up abruptly, wobbling on his feet. The ghost of Eliott’s warm touch lingers on his cheek. “I’m gonna go wash my face.”

Eliott makes a slight grunt of acknowledgement as he heads straight for the shared bathroom in their flatshare. There, as he’s washing his hands, he runs cold water over his wrists for a while to sober himself up. He scruffs his hair back, lets the light fill his eyes for a minute, and that’s when he spots it. The shelf with an array of Manon and Mika’s skincare products, sometimes colorful but often clear little bottles with labels proclaiming it a facial wash, serum, oil, toner - _what the fuck is a toner_ \- masks, and other assorted knickknacks and baubles.

He picks up what looks like a small massage tool barely longer than his index finger, two oval shaped green stones on either end. On the handle is a lightly carved inscription: _Jade Facial Roller_. Oh-kay, he has absolutely zero idea why you’d wanna run little green stones over your face, but go figure. Still, there _must_ be a reason why both Manon and Mika had no breakouts, whiteheads or otherwise, even if he knew for a fact that Mika barely changed his pillowcases and that Manon had the habit of putting her face into her hands whenever she was feeling sad or stressed.

In his semi-drunken state, he has the half the mind to just scurry on out, maybe lie back on the couch this time, stare at Eliott’s face as he drinks his fifth bottle.

But. Ugh. His face. Those stupid fucking whiteheads under his dumb too-straight nose. Maybe if he made them go away Nic would know what a dumbass he really was for letting him go. For leaving him on this terrible shore of loneliness, unsure of where to swim next or if someone would be waiting for him if he sank below the water.

The keywords, of course, are half the mind. So instead, he fumbles for the phone in his backpocket and sets it up awkwardly on the shelf, making it stand upright against a huge bottle of _Laboratoires Klorane_, whatever that was.

He taps on instagram live, and begins what can only be described as the classiest of classy lives.

“So I don’t really know why I’m doing a live because I don’t really do this kinda shit, honestly.”

His eyes dart back and forth to two particular tubes on the shelf - _Malin+Goetz Clarifying Clay Mask_ and _Fresh Umbrian Clay Purifying Mask_.

“But… I wanna say a nice little fuck you to my ex. I think he broke up with me ‘cos I have these little annoying white things under my nose. I guess these make me uglier or something, I dunno. I’m cute when I’m not having these stupid off days.”

He squats a little and tips his head back to show the camera the skin under his nose. He grabs the tube nearest to him, uncaps the opening and begins to squirt some of the goop on his fingers.

“My flatmates always tell me - although I never really listened, honestly - that masking just makes everything better. Your face, your mood, maybe even your personality? I assume they’re talking about this stuff_—“ _He holds the tube up to the camera. “— and not actual masks like the ones you use for carnivals and masquerade balls or some shit. I think you’re supposed to rub this stuff all over your face and it makes your pores smaller? Hey, if it makes stuff smaller… maybe if I rub this on my ex it’ll make his ego smaller, too? Overcompensating much? Shoutout to my ex’s tiny nether regions, flat ass, and low stamina, y’all!”

He snickers at his own joke, then proceeds to put the heavy grey substance all over his cheeks, then to his nose, upper lip, chin, and forehead in slow, circling motions. It feels… weird, but not unpleasant. Just weird.

“Anyway, I hope it clears up these whiteheads, they’re annoying as fuck and they make me look not cute at all. Let’s be honest, when you’re not cute, you get like, seventy percent less chance of a random hook-up when you go to a party… don’t ask me how I know that statistic. I just do, okay.”

Then the strangest sensation occurs: the goop begins to harden on his face. He feels it suffocating his skin like cement drying on a hot pavement - and promptly begins to have a minor freakout.

“What the actual fuck? Why is this getting hard? No one told me masks got hard like dicks?!”

Eliott’s there at the door in what seems like an instant. “Lucas? Are you okay?”

“Eliott! Get in here! There’s something hard on my face! It’s like dried cum if it like, died, was preserved, and got mixed with asbestos! Why did no one tell me?!”

Mini-meltdown aside, he does get Eliott cradling his head in his hands, gently washing his face with a towel doused in warm water, and fussing over him like an overly concerned proxy for a job that's supposed to be done by Lucas's non-existent significant other. He can’t complain too much when Eliott _also_ laughs and tells him he’s panicking and shrieking for naught, his hair sticking up in all directions like a hedgehog with its spikes out. He’d watched the last minute of his instagram live at the precise moment his face started to show signs of distress, which was how he’d known to rush to Lucas’s aid.

Like with most stupid things Lucas has done in his life (skating on one foot, eating a taco sprinkled with way too much ghost pepper, getting a boyfriend who maybe didn’t give two shits about him), he couldn’t ever predict when or if it would change his life. And he definitely couldn’t have seen this particular development coming from even a million miles away.

.

By some stroke of irony, luck, or simply the universe’s sick joke, Lucas’s little fluke of an instagram live goes viral.

_HEARTBROKEN PARISIAN BOY COMPARES MASKING TO DICKS AND THE INTERNET AGREES - SEE THE FULL VIDEO UNDER THE JUMP_ reads the embarrassing headline of an article from a skincare blog that Basile gleefully links in their group chat. _French cutie roasts his ex and compares a Malin+Goetz HARD clay mask to another HARD thing _says the clickbait Buzzfeed article that Arthur copies and pastes to their own private chat, sparing his dignity for a full hour before Yann gets a hold of it and posts the link to their group chat, too.

To say it’s a bit nuts is an understatement. He was fucking _drunk, _for fuck’s sake. How is he supposed to predict that his stupid live would get him tens of thousands of followers in a matter of days, engagement statistics that even actual celebrities would kill for, and - get this - offers to appear on fucking _television_. What would he even say? _Hi, I swear I’m not actually obsessed with penises no matter how many times I said dicks on instagram, _he’d stutter, smiling nervously at the camera like an idiot.

“You’re an influencer now, congrats,” Eliott says over lunch precisely three days later. Not that Lucas is particularly enthused; he’s almost sulky as he pushes his soggy fries around the plate.

They’re in one of the cafes they both love to frequent: Lucas for the food and Eliott for the coffee. Today though, Lucas is acutely aware of people whispering behind their table, looking at him and at Eliott in turns. People looked at Eliott wherever they went, so that’s old hat - but people looking at Lucas? That could only because of one thing, and Lucas isn’t sure if he likes it.

“You should take advantage of it, earn a little extra on the side.” Eliott ducks his head, voice turning quiet. “You’d be able to pay Mika on time without having to rely on your dad.”

Lucas sighs. This is unfortunately true; he doesn't want any handouts anymore from his asshole father, not after he’d married and been too busy with his new wife and kids to transfer funds on time. He has a part-time gig working as a clerk at a vinyl store, but that's barely enough to cover rent, books in University, and basic necessities.

Even during their weekly lunches, Eliot's the one begging to try new restaurants or get bigger, more filling meals - all with Eliott paying, of course. Not only did he have money from modelling; he was, for all intents and purposes, a trust fund baby. He’d deny this to hell and back, saying his mother “was only a pro-bono lawyer” and his father “just worked at a small start-up,” never mind his mother being partner at her own firm and his father owning a huge stake in one of the most successful cloud companies in Paris.

On more than occasion, Eliott had gently pushed into his hands (or hid under his pillows or sneaked into his backpack) 'loans' to help him with his rent. Calling it a loan was admittedly a bit of a misnomer, as no matter how much Lucas protested, Eliott wouldn't hear of things like interest or collateral. Still, Lucas is nothing if not stubborn, so he has his ways of giving Eliott back the money. Having Eliott pay for meals is one thing, but Eliott offering to pay huge chunks - sometimes even a hundred percent - of his rent? Hell no. Eliott’s been wracking his brain trying to find ways to help Lucas without it seeming like charity, and it's entirely predictable he’d see this as one such opportunity.

“Say I did try doing this… thing,” Lucas begins, frowning at the ketchup down his plate. “What would I even say? Who’d wanna see me?”

“Lucas,” Eliott sighs the sigh of a good-natured, yet perpetually set-upon best friend. “You already have the audience. Last I checked, you’d surpassed 150,000 followers. That’s a huge deal! You just had, what, 2,000-ish before? That’s fast growth, and I mean speed of lightning fast.”

“That’s nothing compared to you, though. You’re nearing a million,” he points out.

Eliott shrugs in typical nonplussed-at-online-fame Eliott fashion. “Well, yeah. But I’ve been at this thing for about five years now. It’s grown organically over time. But you! Now that’s amazing.”

Lucas runs his fingers through his hair, Eliott’s assurances doing little to assuage that nagging voice inside his mind telling him he’s in way over his head, that it's just a flash in the pan thing. “Granting I manage to spit out content. Influencers have the looks. Like you. I mean, look at you - of course, you’d have a million people salivating over your photos. Not like me. I’m pretty average — and that’s not like a self-deprecating thing. I just mean I’m average compared to the standard so-called influencer.” 

Eliott watches Lucas’s face as he rambles, eyes soft and soothing, but not quite able to disguise the sharp, protective part of him that lurks underneath, ready to strike down any hint of Lucas’s insecurities. 

“I might have to say this to you a million times, but trust me. You’re not average.” Eliott’s lips quirk up in a wry smile tinged with a hint of rosy nostalgia. “How else would I’ve been able to notice you — and only you — all those years ago?”

.

It’s maybe due to him giving in to peer pressure, although it’s really only _le gang_, Daphne, Mika, and Eliott; Daphne’s particularly excited about it, shaking him by the shoulders and babbling nonsense like _why hadn’t I seen your potential before_ and _oh my gosh Lucas, what were you talking about in that live, your face is absolutely flawless_.

He gives the thing a try and does a new instagram live video a few hours after that lunch. This time, he further showcases his sad ineptitude at skincare by rubbing his face with one of Manon’s facial washes and promptly washing it off in no less than ten seconds after the foam gets into his mouth.

He doesn’t mean to, but he blurts out, “Fuck, this tastes worse than ass” after coughing out the soapy taste on his tongue, and his live explodes with comments.

**professorsexavier**

_omG lucas eats ass CONFIRMED_

**lovelykaraaaa** _  
_

_rimming >>>> facial washes gays take note_

**lobsterth0t**

_you are so hOOTTT marry me pls_

**beardaddy41**

_i’ll eat YOUR ass like a champ_

Thirsty comments aside, the live isn’t so disastrous after all as it gains him thousands of followers in a matter of hours. It’s reposted by both joke blogs, skincare accounts, and self-care proponents on instagram. He sees his face on accounts like @allure and @intothegloss, hailing him as a ‘refreshing’ and ‘honest’ look into what an ‘average user’ of skincare products (though he’d argue he could hardly be called a ‘user’ at this point, a passing visitor would be more accurate) would do or say without the pretense of what the articles called ‘keeping up with things like a 15-step skincare routine’.

He pauses to do a double take. Okay, people followed _15 freaking steps _to cleaning their face? No way. There’s just no way a sane person would do that. For one, how would a person following the 15-step routine have time to read a book at night or, say, prepare for the inevitable nuclear apocalypse? You couldn't do useful shit if you were busy applying gunk to your face.

He says as much in his next live two days later, arguing that 15 steps were way too much for the everyday person.

“I’d probably fall asleep at, like, the fifth step,” he says into the camera, massaging some moisturizing jojoba oil into his cheek. “See, I wash my face, tone it just like Mika told me to do, then moisturize… again, because Mika told me to. No, Mika is not my mom, he’s my flatmate. That’s seriously all I do. None of that 15-step stuff —“

He cuts himself off, squinting at the array of comments rapidly flying across the screen.

“Okay, what the hell is a serum and why are you all telling me to put some on before the oil? And what the fuck is a snail face mask?”

_._

One unsurprising side-effect of gaining more followers is having more perverts creeping on his account. He gets his first unsolicited dick pic via insta DMs literally minutes after ending his third live. Then another. Then, miraculously, yet another. It’s far surpassed whatever he’s managed to get on his defunct Grindr account in a fit of libidinous boredom and in the same amount of time. It’s only then that Lucas begins to believe that he truly is living in a sort of alternate reality, one where guys apparently wanted him even after seeing him choke unattractively on facial wash. He’s stumbled into an erotic renaissance - not entirely wanted, but hey, an ego boost is an ego boost.

He sends some of the screenshots to Eliott. They laugh at them over beer and greasy fried food. Eliott, without fail, always has something to say about them.

“That looks like an angry eggplant. No thanks,” Eliott says of one dick that looks bruised.

“This one curves unnaturally,” he says of another. “Actually, that was maybe me being too generous. It looks deformed.”

Lucas thinks it looks perfectly fine. He makes a show of thinking about it. “Really? I might take this one up on the offer, honestly.”

Eliott looks at him like he’s grown a second head; Lucas guffaws behind his hand. “You can’t be serious.”

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t. Now that you mention it, the head does look a little weird.”

“Again, deformed. _Misshapen._”

Lucas feigns being scandalized. “Eliott! Stop being so mean to these poor dicks!” 

Eliott sniffs, crossing his arms, but he can’t fight the grin playing on his lips. “Whatever. They don’t even know how to sext properly.”

Lucas raises a challenging brow. “And you do?”

“Of course,” Eliott answers easily, confidently. Lucas is only a little surprised and definitely _not _jealous of any of the non-entities Eliott may or may not have sexted and/or showcased his sexual prowess to. Nope, _not_ irritated at the thought of Eliott sexting with such frequency that it's led to basically declaring himself an authority on the matter.

“Okay. Enlighten me, oh great Eliott Demaury, god of sexting.”

Eliott rolls his eyes, leaning in like he’s imparting a secret. Lucas knows this look; Eliott gets like this when he’s preparing to use his creds as a former L student. Lucas imagines Eliott doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to talk about his love for literature and all things romantic with his model colleagues - which is why Lucas gets the brunt of it. Of course, he doesn’t mind. He’s never minded.

“Sexting is like composing a love letter, Lucas. You have to consider what’s required in a formal sentence. Things like… the rhythm of punctuation, knowing when to start, when to stop. A well-timed ellipsis. Erotic grammar is good grammar. A movie should play in your head.”

“… You lost me at sexting’s like a love letter,” he teases, but honestly, he gets it. Eliott’s the type who gets both word-feelings and image-feelings in equal measure, and as cringey as it is to agree with the kind of things that inform pitches for cheesy sitcoms, Lucas can’t disagree.

After all, seduction is language, bodily or verbal, not action. Eliott just so happens to be so great at both without realizing it, much to Lucas’s eternal chagrin.

.

Barely a week after his first live, he gets another DM. This time though, it isn’t just any message. It isn’t another lewd proposition nor is it annoying spam either.

“Fuck, I got a DM from Malin+Goetz,” he breathes into his phone. Eliott’s in London modelling for a local sustainable fashion boutique, and he won’t be back until next week, but _fuck_ if this doesn’t send him into a panic. “I thought they were suing or something. They just said they wanted to repost my live and then..."

“Let me guess.” Eliott sounds jetlagged but full of cheer, which just boggles Lucas’s mind. It further fuels his suspicions that Eliott’s either an alien, a vampire, or a mortal god. Or all three because why not; they're already within that realm of possibility. “They offered to send you their entire line?”

“How did you fucking know?!”

Eliott laughs softly, and his voice has the sort of slightly rough tone that has successfully made Lucas quiver since he’d first laid eyes on Eliott._ No, do NOT go there, Lucas. _Still, he feels his heart kick quietly into double-time.

“Because I told you. You’re special, you’ve always been. And now everybody’s seeing that, too - just took them a little longer to catch on, but I knew everyone would get there.”

Though they're speaking long distance, Lucas thinks Eliott sounds like he’s leaning over him, bringing Lucas into the warmth of him, _closer_ just for a moment. His pulse takes a distinct and dramatic swing upwards. It feels almost flirty. But Eliott doesn’t flirt with him - he can’t be.

But shit, it feels so much like it that it tightens Lucas’s chest around his heart.


	2. peeling (inner doubts) to reveal the dew

**JessePinkmansBitch **2 hours ago

you guys are NOT just best friends no fckin way

999 likes

**elivazeth **2 hours ago

eliott is more WHIPPED than a slave at a bdsm club scrEAMS

1.6k likes

**Aziraphalene **2 hours ago

did i just click on a boyfriend tag video or

453 likes

**r00kievelvet **1.5 hours ago

i’d like to thank god and lucas for having eliott in this video. eliott’s face is a service to humanity. lucas you're doing the lord's work keep it up

843 likes

**MOGSCHAN **1 hour ago

look around the 2:42 mark in lucas's room before the neighbourhood tour. i have to ask how eliott jr can stay down when lucas FLAILS around on his LAP like he’s possessed

2.4k likes

**retired naruto stan **8 hours ago

LUCAS yR HaT FRIED ISIN LVE WIZ u R U LEGALLY BLOND

1k likes

**retired naruto stan **20 minutes ago

sorry was wasted its ***** HOT FRIEND *****IN LOVE *****LEGALLY BLIND

1.9k likes

Three months and more than 200,000 followers later, Lucas starts a youtube channel. There’s a few reasons why he’s persuaded to do so.

First, instagram lives do absolute shit for his concentration; he’s frequently distracted by the comments running down his screen like an interminable waterfall. Comments that steal his attention ranged from ego-boosting (_Lucasss you look soooo good today) _to annoying (_Do more research, there are literal kids watching and you don’t even say you’re not a skincare expert) _to downright perverted and lowkey disturbing (_Shoulda been a camboy instead of an ig shill mmm those dsls are to die for)._

Second, he can’t really do anything longform on instagram live. How is he supposed to go on a 10-minute rant about the sustainability pitfalls of most drugstore exfoliators (Mika informed him of this fact during breakfast one day, and to be honest it’s an issue worthy of discussion) to people who had the attention span of a crab?

So he opens his youtube account, does more videos over the course of three months, amasses hundreds of thousands of subscribers - the works. It’s all pretty standard as far as content creator (_Influencer_, _you’re an influencer,_ Eliott’s teasing voice gently reminds him in his head) numbers go.

And then he does his first video with Eliott when the latter visits him during a layover. They film it outside for variety, taking Lucas’s viewers around the outskirts of their neighbourhood as they do a simple **Best Friend Tag! **video. It’s really just 12 minutes of him and Eliott answering dumb slam book type questions like _what’s your favorite color _(Blue for Lucas, and after a bit of deliberation and secretive smile, Blue for Eliott as well - and not just any blue, but Ocean Blue) or _who’s your childhood crush_ (Eliott’s is Kaya Scodelario; Lucas’s is Léa Seydoux and after some prodding, Gaspard Uliel).

Thing is, Eliott makes it difficult for the audience to discern where exactly the boundaries between so-called best friends were.

The thumbnail is innocent enough, but there's a long moment when they're back in Lucas's room where Eliott sits so close to him that the back of his shoulder looks glued to Eliott’s chest. Their lower bodies are hidden from view so people actually think Lucas is half-sitting on Eliott’s lap the entire time. There are also several moments when Lucas would tease Eliott about being _an actual Elite model, I’m not even kidding, guys_, and Eliott would shove at his shoulder, realize he maybe pushed too hard, then pull him back close, holding him and brushing the hair from his face. Lovingly. Tenderly. Looking at him like he just won the Man Booker Prize for the most sweeping, tearjerking romance in the world (Eliott’s a literature nerd so Lucas thinks it’s more appropriate in this instance than a cliche like _he hung the moon_). Much like a boyfriend would.

Lucas supposes the most difficult part of this entire thing is that Eliott’s made it difficult for _him_, too, whether he realizes it or not.

The audience, of course, isn’t stupid. They catch on pretty quick - and fucking _how_. How are these commenters just wasting their lives - and apparent astute observational skills - on youtube and not working for the DGSE or America’s CIA. Lucas with blackheads on his nose? They'd know. Lucas with puffier than usual undereyes? Doesn't escape them. Lucas looking at Eliott like he wants to kiss him senseless? They'd see it all the way from the moon if they could. 

In those twelve minutes, they catch how the tips of Lucas’s ears go red whenever Eliott retaliates with a soft smile and killer lines like: _I may be a mannequin elite, but hey, I’m nobody when I’m with the most beautiful boy in all of France, wouldn’t you all agree_?

And while he’s sitting there stuttering like a dunce and thinking _what the ever loving fuck did he just say_, the comments section would explode with a landmine of suggestive comments.

There are the comments complimenting Eliott’s heart-stopping beauty - because _duh_. There are screams in capslock directed at Lucas for being brilliant enough to grace a rapturous audience with Eliott’s face onscreen. The only non-adulatory comment about Eliott is people expected him to have a deeper voice than his face would suggest. His speaking voice is mild, casting hi’s and hello’s sotto voce; when he laughs, it’s unexpectedly loud, convulsive, and high-pitched. Lucas is probably more offended on Eliott’s behalf; he loves Eliott’s laugh.

But then, there are _those _comments. The ones he reads over and over again until he’s sure his eyes are bleeding, leaking truth and weakness and _feelings_.

He feels complete and sudden mortification when it hits him that these youtube comments don’t just disappear in a flash like the insta live comments do. Instead, they’re just sitting there taunting him on the comments section, forever a reminder of his growing crush on his stupidly gorgeous, achingly sweet specimen of a best friend.

.

**infinity stone(d)** @ohnoitsmatt 1 minute ago

@lucallemant stop looking at @srodulv like you want to devour him challenge #LucaSelfCareSaturdays #ChooseElu

**4eversingle 5everpretty **@vanderheyden 3 minutes ago

Eliott’s AESTHETIQ is the best pls drop a fashion video soon im dying to know where he got that shirt!!! #LucaSelfCareSaturdays #ChooseElu

**camera boy is my eliott confirmed **@softrobb 4 minutes ago

is @sandroparis already sponsoring @lucallemant or?? boy be wearin that gray hoodie like 8472874 times #LucaSelfCareSaturdays #ChooseElu

**snakesak **@takoisaac 5 minutes ago

the most beautiful best friends-to-lovers au pls get a room guys oh WAIT UR ALREADY ATTACHED AT THE HIP i’m wEEPING #LucaSelfCareSaturdays #ChooseElu

**emotional support lesbian **@shaythegayaway 7 minutes ago

get you a mans who looks at you the way @srodulv looks at @lucallemant #LucaSelfCareSaturdays #ChooseElu

“Only the second video together and we’re already trending on twitter? People are… weirdly invested,” Eliott gleefully observes over the phone.

“Like you’re invested in racking up roaming hours calling when you’re halfway across the world?” Lucas replies distractedly.

He’s squinting at the comments over their latest video, not entirely sure if he should be horrified at people’s sagacity or thankful that, hey, maybe if strangers on the internet saw _something _mutual between them, then —

Then maybe Eliott isn’t such a lost cause after all? 

“Mm, something like that,” is Eliott’s non-answer. 

Like most things with Eliott, Lucas doesn’t mind. Not the hour-long calls, sometimes over terrible static as if Eliott’s speaking to a paper cup held by strings. In truth, he likes that they both take the time, scheduling, and effort to _work_ to stay involved with each other’s lives. While he has his friends in the city, it’s still easier to fake, to rely on proximity to stand-in for actual connection. Being apart, whether a few blocks or a thousand miles, Lucas and Eliott actively choose one another, each day, each week, each month.

Eliott’s in Seoul this time, shooting for a trendy brand geared towards hipster millennials and cooler-than-thou Gen Z-ers. Despite the late hour and a long day’s shoot, he sounds weirdly happy, like he’d just eaten his favourite food and then skipped right over to dessert. Though Eliott’s cultivated a worldly palate over years of travelling, unless his tongue’s decided to stage a revolution, Lucas can’t imagine Eliott acclimatizing that quickly to the taste of kimchi.

Lucas puts the phone on the junction between his shoulder and ear, frowning at his laptop screen. “Choose Elu? Is that some kinda wordplay on the meaning of Elu? Who even came up with Elu?”

“You know, the more you say ‘Elu’ the more I like the sound of it. And does it really matter who started it?” Lucas hears shuffling in the background and the gentle creak of a mattress. “The portmanteau’s cute. Better than something like… Eliocas or Lueli. Elu rolls off the tongue better.”

“It’s a little creepy,” he huffs. “There’s like, edits and photo-manips. There’s even _twitter fanfics,_ Eliott. Let that sink in for a sec. I feel like a member of One Direction. Or one those kpop boybands who trend every time one of them, I dunno, has a birthday or pisses on the sidewalk.”

“Pretty sure we’d hear about them getting arrested for public indecency if that was the case,” Eliott laughs over the line, warm and honeyed. “‘Sides, I think it’s sweet. Stories take time and effort. They see the potential in your life and think you’re interesting enough to base an entire new world on.”

“It’s never just me, though. You’re always in them, too. Even worse, you’re always something cool, while I’m…”

He clicks on the hashtag for #ChooseElu, which so far has around more than 10,000 tweets. He scrolls further and is again a little disconcerted to see people making fake social media posts with accompanying short stories… which he’ll never admit to having read quite a fair bit of. In the stories, Eliott’s always something cool like a vampire or astronaut or time traveller, while Lucas is just…

“You’re what? Lucas?”

“… Nothing. No great alter-egos or jobs. Just myself. Your average, everyday, friendly neighborhood gay disaster.” Lucas’s tongue hits the roof of his mouth as he prepares to enunciate with importance. “_Sksksksks_ personified.”

Eliott’s doing a piss poor job of stifling his laughter. “So it’s accurate, then?”

Lucas squawks, “Fuck you! I’ll have you know being the human embodiment of a homosexual keysmash is doing wonders for my brand of relatable coolness.”

“What even is a homosexual keysmash?” Eliott doesn’t stop laughing for at least a few seconds more, before it peters off into quiet giggles. “But seriously, though. I like it.”

“Like what?”

“That I’m always in stories with you.” Eliott pitches himself slower, more dreamily. “It reminds me of your parallel universe theory.”

Lucas falls silent, letting Eliott’s voice wash over him. Words well up, words too dangerous to be spoken out loud: _You remember my stupid theory from when we were younger and dumber? When I was already in love with you but didn’t want to admit it to myself? _He mouths the last few words so there’s nothing to hear but his quiet humming over the line, encouraging Eliott to go on.

“I like the thought,” Eliott continues, and Lucas buries his legs under his blanket, warming his legs and matching the heat blooming in the very apex of his chest, “of you and me always together in strangers’ stories. It’s like living a thousand lives in every corner of the world… all of them with you. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Lucas’s answer seems pulled from deep within. “Me, too.”

“I can never imagine any story where we aren’t together,” Eliott whispers.

Lucas bites the inside of his cheek to keep from saying something that’ll upset the bubble they’d built between them. For a little while longer, he’d live in this one world where Eliott could utter these things and it’d be okay for him to dream of possibilities, of them living in strangers' love stories, doing everything imaginable, forever together.

.

> **r/VloggerChatter **| Posted by u/**LallemAntsInMyPants**
> 
> **  
**
> 
> Discussion | **Are Lucas L. and his model bff Eliott ACTUALLY dating? POSSIBLE TINHATTING #CHOOSEELU**  
****
> 
> New to the sub so hi guys! As you can tell from the uname I love Lucas. Obviously Lallemant but Van der Heijden the new Dutch beauty vlogger on the block holds a special place in my heart, too. I really loved his latest post on Low Tech Beauty Tools You Can Only Find in Amsterdam! He’s so pretty it’s unreal! Both Lucases are!
> 
> Anyway before I go off on a tangent about Lucas VDH (he deserves his own post lbr), I’d like to discuss something that’s been brewing in my head for a couple months since Lucas first posted about Eliott. Everyone knows who Eliott Demaury is by this point. Elite Model (thanks Lucas for reminding us in every video ever), purveyor of sustainable fashion, pansexual king, mental health advocate, and actual human ray of sunshine. For anyone curious (or living under a rock), his only official account is his IG @srodulv.
> 
> So the question on everyone’s minds is are these two ACTUALLY dating? They’ve certainly given me cause to think so. Touchy with each other? Check. Constantly talking about the other on social media? Yep. References no one else seems to get the moment it’s said then we find out months later it’s actually about either one (case in point: CHELOU)? Mothereffin’ YES. It could be argued that hugging a lot and inside jokes are totally common in any friendship. BUT. HEAR ME OUT. These two are forreals dating. I’ve been a longtime viewer of Lucas and have followed Eliott ever since he was mentioned in Lucas’s 2nd video (the one where he gagged on facial wash lol he’s come a long way since then!!) so I’ve observed all the videos, interactions, and posts.
> 
> Here’s what I’ve noticed:
> 
> Eliott’s has a tattoo on his right wrist of a raccoon, which he has said in the best friend tag video to be his spirit animal. In the same video, he calls Lucas _herisson_ at around the 8:47 mark. Just two days ago, Eliott posted art on his ig of a hedgehog and raccoon. And these two critters weren’t just standing around on paper. They were INTERTWINED like LOVERS. It CANNOT be construed as JUST a hug guys, I fucking swear. I’m a sophomore Art Studies major and have turned this drawing over, sideways and under. It screams LOVE from all angles.
> 
> In relation to the 1st point, Eliott mentioned in an insta live yesterday that he got a new tattoo on his wrist (where the raccoon tattoo is), which was why he was wearing a long sleeved shirt since the skin’s still raw. I’m betting my left tit it’s a tattoo of a hedgehog. Why? See the screenshot here. As you can see, there are rows of sharp edges of what looks like hedgehog spikes beside the raccoon. Sorry there’s no better quality photo, the sleeve didn’t go up that much in the live!
> 
> In Eliott’s facebook live interview for Teen Vogue’s Male Models to Watch for 2019, he mentions he’s “not currently dating” but that he’s “very much in love.” And then he SMILES BASHFULLY like he’s hiding a secret. Eliott honey it’s already 2020, life is short, you can say you’re in love with your best friend and it’s okay!!!!
> 
> In Lucas’s _Trying Weird Korean Facemasks from Eliott’s Myeongdong Haul_ video, he plays the piano for a few seconds and says the last time he played that specific piece was at Eliott’s place back in lycee. I searched high and low for those random notes he played and guess what? He played a piece called I LOVE YOU. Can he make it any more obvious?!?!
> 
> I have a few more but these are top of mind… let me know what y’alls think! Even if they aren’t dating there’s definitely _something_ going on. Hope it’s not unrequited love, though. I mean no one wants to see Lucas cry and Lucas looks like he’s gonna be an ugly crier. Ooop sorry bb I still think you’re the prettiest otherwise!!!
> 
> **594 Comments **
> 
> Sort by **Best**  
****
> 
> _alfafay_ **yoon jeonghan is my daddy **864 points | 8 hours ago  
****
> 
> Who wants to take bets on who’s gonna confess live oncam? Or better yet, announce they’re already an item. I’m betting on Lucas (BOOKMARK THIS COMMENT FOLKS). He seems like the type to word vomit I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU when Eliott does something even remotely sultry like send him an emoji with a semicolon winky instead of a normal colon. Who’s with me?
> 
> _floatingdaff0dil_ **stan eruri for clear skin **532 points | 12 hours ago
> 
> Why does this post make it sound like Eliott’s more in love with Lucas than Lucas is in love with Eliott? Based on Lucas’s videos and posts he’s just as much if not MORE in love tbh…….
> 
> _HPotters75_ **hagrid’s harlot** 322 points | 14 hours ago
> 
> Ew wtf at this entire post. Tinhat shippers will take every little detail and twist it for their own purposes. I could say the same about Eliott and his friend Idriss or Lucas and HIS friends Yann or Arthur based on coincidences like matching colors of their shirts for the day and it’d basically be the same thing. Stop speculating on real people’s lives, it’s disrespectful.
> 
> _EvenTheOsloNightsAreBetter_ **kardemomme lover’s lover **276 points | 3 hours ago
> 
> Lucas L and Lucas VDH should never collab. The world can’t handle their combined power and beauty #eurotwinksunite amirite??
> 
> _reply to EvenTheOsloNightsAreBetter _|_ davidsgoliath_ **.gif **366 points | 3 hours ago
> 
> yes to a collab but only if it’s mud wrestling lol. and for the record, vdh would defo win (YEAH BOOKMARK THIS COMMENT TOO FOLKS LMAO)

****

****

.

**KlancingAround **30 minutes ago

A date with someone who isn’t ig user @srodulv??? INSTADISLIKE

4.6k likes

**PharaohAtemu **30 minutes ago

who the fuck is victor?? is that eliott’s second name

1.3k likes

**mafuyous **20 minutes ago

NO I REFUSE TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE LUCAS ISN’T DATING ELIOTT

963 likes

**Buckysbitch **10 minutes ago

delete this

482 likes

Lucas stares down at his phone. It’s the first time that any of his videos get more than 10,000 dislikes, just because of a minor, 2-second mention that he’s going on a date with Victor. An acquaintance from lycée, they reconnected over facebook two weeks ago and they’ve been, well, talking. Victor’s seen his videos, of course, and tells him he looks better than he’s ever remembered, that he’s “blossomed” so much since their school days.

Their conversations aren’t anything significant, not until Victor tells him he’s always had a crush on him at school, that he’s back in Paris for University break, and would Lucas maybe like to go on a date with him. Nothing’s expected out of it, not even a hook-up, since Victor wouldn’t be in town for long. They agree to meet at a nearby bar, with both of them bringing their respective friend groups so it wouldn’t be too awkward. They’d just talk, drink, dance a little, maybe make out… but Lucas honestly didn’t plan on going home with him.

“It’s just an outing between friends, but for brevity’s sake we’ll call it a date. And also so I can tag this with #DateNight. #FriendsNight just doesn’t have the same ring to it,” Lucas tells the camera cheerily and _clearly_, leaving no room for any doubt that he isn’t running off to marry Victor in a secret ceremony. “I’m actually excited, guys. Please wish me luck!”

But the internet does _not_ wish him luck. Instead, it hurls all sorts of vicious questions at Lucas. Why isn’t he with Eliott? Where is Eliott? What would Eliott say to all this?

Christ. He hopes people don’t dox Victor or steal his social security numbers or do something equally stomach-churning. He won’t be able to live with himself if Victor gets run out of Paris because of delusional trolls who have nothing better to do online.

“Why does it have to be about Eliott all the time?” he grumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose. He feels a headache coming on and he hasn’t even chugged more than one beer. “I _do _have a life outside him. People are just obsessed at this point.”

“Well, everyone on the internet thinks you and Eliott are already dating,” Yann points out as they pregame in Lucas’s living room. They’re waiting for Bas to get the fuck out of the bathroom; he’s doing some sort of instagram story featuring Lucas’s shelves of skincare products - the majority sent by companies’ PR if he’s being totally transparent - hoping it’ll get him noticed by Daphne. “And honestly, I can’t blame them. So I don’t know why the hell you’re still pretending like you want to look good for someone else?”

Lucas begins to protest, but Arthur holds a hand up to shush him.

Yann takes this as a cue to continue. “Lucas, he’s basically dropping anvil-sized hints at this point. Even Bas can see it. The other day he asked me if you and Eliott already, and I quote,” he pauses to pull a face, “hit a home run. Fucking Basile! If that doesn’t tell you something, then I don’t know what to say to you.”

The fuck. Aside from the mental image of Basile imagining him and Eliott in various compromising positions, the thought of his friends subscribing to one too many internet conspiracy theorists has him more than a little annoyed.

“Just tell him! He’s been into you for—“ Yann blurts.

“Yann,” Arthur interrupts, shaking his head. Lucas glances back and forth between them curiously - Arthur looking at Yann almost in warning and Yann closing his mouth, looking sheepish.

Yann sighs as if carrying a heavy weight, turning to Arthur like he’s pleading to get his piece out. “I just want these two to get their act together. It’s not right that the fucking _internet_ has them all figured out and they don’t even—“

“Again,” Arthur insists sharply, looking peevish, “it’s not our place.”

“What’s not your place?” And there’s Eliott coming through the front door with a 6-pack of Heineken, beaming at them all. His entrance coincides with Bas finally deciding to emerge from the bathroom and practically throwing himself face first into Eliott’s shoulder.

As Eliott recovers from Bas’s full body hug, Lucas clears his throat. “I didn’t know you were coming home today from Tokyo.”

Eliott gives him a look that’s almost shy. “Yeah, I kinda wanted to surprise you. So - surprise?” 

Lucas is about to say something when Bas ruins the moment: “Good thing you’re here, Eli. Just in time for Lucas’s date! I mean, at least it wouldn’t be so lame if you and I are single together just ‘cos Yann, Arthur, and now Lucas have all decided to be attached or get dates.”

It’s a minute thing, unnoticeable to anyone else that isn’t Lucas. But he _knows _Eliott, knows the way his eyes crinkle at the corners when he’s fully, irrevocably happy; he knows how Eliott’s fist closes and opens as if gripping an invisible rope whenever he’s nervous. And he knows how Eliott’s eye twitches whenever he’s on the verge of crossness but exerting maximum effort not to show it.

Eliott’s still wearing that smile. His eye twitches when he looks at Lucas, the question evident. “Date?”

“It’s not a _date_ date. Just a friend date,” Lucas mutters, trying to defuse the moment. He can feel both Yann and Arthur staring at him intently. “We just— we got to talking again over facebook and—“

“You don’t have to explain anything, Lu,” Eliott says in soft understanding. His eye isn’t twitching anymore. His smile looks brittle, doesn’t reach his eyes. “Hey, we’re all here to have a good time, right? And no one’s happier for you than I am. _Date _date or not.”

The tense air that seemed to settle in the atmosphere dissipates when Eliott throws an arm over his shoulder.

When he holds Lucas’s hand on the way to the bar, it isn’t as tight as he remembers.

At the date proper though, he doesn’t even get to the dancing and making out part with Victor. It’s unsurprisingly easy to pull his attention away, all things considered. It’s not that Victor’s boring or uninspired. He’s handsome, polished, and knows all the right things to say. For his part, Lucas tries his best to project a combination of confidence and deep preoccupation with Victor’s very interesting opinions.

It’s just that - when Eliott’s there, just around the corner, he takes up all of Lucas’s attention, a black hole sucking up all of his front and peripheral vision. And Lucas welcomes it. All it takes is Eliott pulling him by the forearm when a pulsing remix of Carly Rae Jepsen’s _Cut to The Feeling _plays, Eliott mouthing the words - _we crossed the line and it was on - _with a twinkle in his eyes, and Lucas is already excusing himself to be with Eliott on the dark, crowded dance floor.

In dancing, the body is everything: the instrument, the vehicle. The body transcribes, translates everything he can’t find in himself to say. 

Eliott takes his hands in his and they move their hips to the bass. Their foreheads touch.

(He’s maybe imagining Eliott throwing a smug look just over his shoulder, but he’s too pleasantly buzzed to care.

He doesn’t look back. Victor doesn’t message him again.)

.

“Okay, so for today I’m just gonna do a quick live. Just like the old days.” Lucas laughs at his own joke. “The old days being… almost a year. Woah, actually. It _has_ been some time since we’ve been at this, huh. Thanks again everyone for finding my series of regrettable life choices entertaining enough to follow!”

He means it when he says thank you; he hopes everyone can see the genuine gratitude on his face. It’s thanks to his followers that he’s able to pay Mika everything he owes - with interest. He’d quit his part-time job a few months ago and just stuck to creating content, pre-filming everything on weekends so he’s not thinking about it on weekdays when he’s supposed to be studying.

He’d also been contemplating moving out the flatshare and renting his own small apartment, but upon weighing his options with Manon and Eliott, had instead been persuaded to save up the money. For University fees, emergencies, travel, small luxuries. He can now actually afford all the things that are sent to him by even the higher-end brands. There’s finally enough.

He turns his phone camera towards the refurbished shelf, showcasing the new tiling he had installed a few weeks ago as a belated ‘thank you’ to Manon and Mika. The shelves are stuffed to the brim with tubs of creams and serums from an array of French, American, Australian, UK, Korean, and Japanese brands that ranged from mind-blowingly expensive to drugstore - from _La Mer_ and _Drunk Elephant _to _Cosrx _and _HadaLabo_. 

“As you can see, there’s a _lot_ of product here. But I haven’t been collecting all these just for display, otherwise you know my roommates - and Eliott - would be all up my case about sustainability. In celebration of one year being this disaster of a self-care enthusiast - yes, _not _beauty guru, please stop tagging me on those male beauty guru listicles because I don’t even know the difference between concealer and foundation, they all sound like construction supplies to me - okay, what was I saying again? Right! I’m doing…” Lucas pauses for dramatic effect. “A giveaway at the end of the video! Yep, one lucky viewer is getting literally 99 percent of this entire shelf!”

Lucas turns the camera to himself. “I’m leaving just the 1 percent for myself, which is like… 5 products. I said before I didn’t do the 15-step thing and I _still _don’t do it now. Ain’t no one got time for that. Uh, _mianhae_ to my Korean viewers just in case you’re devotees of the 15-step routine!”

He props the camera back up the shelf, brushing the bangs from his forehead with a clip he nicked from Manon. He’s since been sent a dozen and one hair clips and hair bands to keep strands away from his face, but somehow Manon’s still feels like the best one in the line-up.

He takes a quick glance at the screen and smiles at the veritable battalion of heart emojis flying in quick succession through his screen. Some are quick to compliment his “cute” butchering of Korean. In all fairness to this content creator gig, he’s managed to pick up more English (and Japanese and Korean) from the desire to understand his audience than he ever did from school.

“Anyway, I’ll also be answering some questions from you guys while we do an exfoliating peel. It’s been two weeks since I Iast exfoliated - I know, I know.” He makes a show of rolling his eyes. “Mika’s gonna kill me, so much dead skin buildup, blah blah.”

He picks up the product, a small clear bottle of _Peter Thomas Roth Pro Strength Exfoliating Super Peel_, and shakes it in the direction of the screen. “I’ll be picking questions at random, so… ask away while I put this stuff on my face.”

**lucaccinos**

_Lucas!!! PLEASE PICK ME! Where’s your dream vacation?_

“This stuff looks like a solid washing-down-yesterday’s-mistakes-down-the-drain kinda peel. See how clear it is instead of the usual grainy or sandpaper-y scrubs or peels? That’s when you know shit’s serious,” he says, tilting the bottle upside down and soaking a cotton pad. “My dream vacation? Maybe the Maldives? I’d like to go somewhere there’s a nice beach. Yes, with a kilo’s worth of SPF on me, don’t go lecturing me about sun damage, jeez.”  
****

**Modelelitisms**

_you’d look sooo hot with a tan_

**callmebyyourfakename**  
****

_LULU do you work out? _

He begins applying it to the apples of his cheeks, half-expecting the immediate sting. A few months ago he would’ve panicked, but now he’s already used to it. And not gonna lie, it _did _do wonders for his skin, making it look dewy and fresh, like he’s perpetually just run a marathon. He has to grudgingly admit those people hyping up the glass skin trend sure knew what they were talking about.  
****

“Yeah, if you count walking 5,000 or more steps everyday going to University working out. At least I think it’s 5,000? Maybe I’ll get a fitbit one of these days so we can all track it together.”

**eluprotectionsquad**

_WHEN WILL YOU GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT WE WANT_

**eluprotectionsquad**  
****

_what we DESERVE_

Lucas blinks. “Huh? What do the people want?”

**choose.elulu**

_LUCAS WHEN WILL YOU MAKE OUT W/ ELIOTT??? _

**elu.franceCLUB**  
****

_the people NEED to know_

Lucas shakes his head, feeling a twitch of exasperation. When will these people let it go? “Guys, please. Eliott and I aren’t—”  
****

Then out the corner of his eye, he catches a particular, familiar username flash across the comments.

**srodulv ✔️**

_so lucas… i wanna know too_

**srodulv ✔️**

_when ARE we making out?_

Blood flushes Lucas’s cheeks. “I. Eliott, what? What are you— Are you shitting me? ” 

**srodulv ✔️**

_not shitting not kidding_

**srodulv ✔️**

_it’s not just the people wanting us to make out_

**choose.elulu**

_OMG OMG OMG ARE YOU ALL SEEING WHAT I’M SEEING??? ELIOTT’S HERE!!!!_

**srodulv ✔️**

_i want it too_

**srodulv ✔️**

_since i first saw you i think _

**prettybitchins**

_eliott yer a fucking kING ATTA BOOIIII_

Lucas’s throat closes up. “Eliott, are you drunk?”

**srodulv ✔️**

_not drunk_

**srodulv ✔️**

_just tired of pretending_

**eluprotectionsquad**

_Eliott’s NEVER on Lucas ig lives holy SHIT we are witnessing hISTORY_

**srodulv ✔️**

_i don’t want anyone else with you. no more duck pics in your dms no more guys trying to date you on fb_

**srodulv ✔️**

_*dick pics_

**srodulv ** [ ✔️ ](https://emojipedia.org/heavy-check-mark/)

_everyone knows how much i love you_

**Tomhollanderz**

_DAMN ELIOTT WENT FOR THE JUGULAR_

**elulOver12**

_I’M FUCKING CRYING ok it’s official my expiration date has been extended thks elu for giving me reason to live!!_

**srodulv ✔️**

_when will you know it too_

Lucas feels like he’s about to pass out. Or pass away. Is there a difference, he thinks absently. “I’m—you love— “

**alfafay**

_noooo wTF i thought Lucas would be the one to confess!!!!  
_

**dovetailsss52**

_LUCAS ANSWER_

Lucas scrambles for his phone, promptly ends the live, and calls Eliott’s number.

“Hey.” Eliott sounds perfectly sober on the other end.

“Hi,” Lucas answers. Breathes slowly to steady himself.

“So… will you ever answer my question? I hope you’re not mad I did it on your live.”

Lucas bites his lower lip to keep from smiling, warmth filling his chest. 

.

He uploads a video to his youtube channel a week later. He has a lot to resolve: there’s a fair bit of angry messages flooding his DMs about the giveaway he promised, but an overwhelming majority are concerned followers asking him if he’s okay. He’s touched if a little bemused by it all.

This time, though, he has Eliott with him.

Eliott, who’s looking positively _radiant_ and _glowing_, like he’s the one who scrubbed once a week and moisturized daily.

Speaking of scrubs, Lucas is currently trying to squeeze some out a tube. He’s doing his actual 4-step routine in today’s video - and having his boyfriend do it, too. Would Eliott’s devastating handsomeness be diminished when what’s basically gray matter is slathered on his face? Now’s the time to find out.

“Usually, this one’s a pump, rub, dump, and move on sorta thing—“ Lucas stops when he hears Eliott laugh beside him. He raises an eyebrow, daring Eliott to say something. “What the hell are _you _smiling about?”

Eliott’s smile is a tad sly. “Oh, nothing. Just that I have the most beautiful boy in all of France talking about pumping and rubbing. Very sexy.” Eliott winks at the camera. “I’m sure you all know what I mean.”

Lucas sputters, but not for long. Eliott’s already tugging him closer, tangling his fingers in Lucas’s hair, and kissing him slow and deep. The kiss flickers in Lucas’s brain over and over - like a film being rewound, except it’s not just the sight of Eliott he remembers, but his taste, his touch, the exhilaration of finally, _finally_ sharing this world with him - a world where they’re together not just in stories written halfway across the globe, but in reality, right here and now.

The camera blinks red, a spotlight in their peripheral vision. But as with all things Eliott, Lucas finds he doesn't mind one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please feel free to bug me on tumblr @pinkplanetaries ehehe 💖bisous! xx


	3. epilogue: to the most beautiful boy, jtm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucas pivots to beauty content (for a cause), Eliott reads elu erotica as a coping mechanism, and the internet is still way too invested in #ChooseElu. Oh, and vidcon also happens. 
> 
> or: self-care/skincare vlogger!lucas, the epilogue

**beyond the call of cutie **@vanderheijden.lucas ✔️10 minutes ago

tickets for our panel just sold out! so excited to see you beauties & my lovely nametwin @lucallement ☺️

**sksksksk personified** @lucallemant ✔️ 7 minutes ago

overwhelmed and so grateful! love you guys can’t wait to see you all! also @vanderheijden.lucas likewise 🤩

**beyond the call of cutie **@vanderheijden.lucas ✔️ 5 minutes ago

@lucallemant hope you bring your gorg beau too @srodulv ❤️❤️❤️

**byler mom **@reddie2go 4 minutes

vdh really said lucas rights! #lucaspower #thelawofthelucases

**volleyball crows 4 nationals **@tsukkiyummy 4 minutes ago

sailing the lucas² ship as of 3min ago get on this people

**hader for president **@billdiscodancing 3 minutes

already writing the slowburn friends to lovers cross-country romance ao3 fic

**laganja’s weed roller **@estrangeeee 3 minutes ago

is it just me tho or was vdh flirting w llmnt’s bf 🤭

**help my housemates suck **@dantekilledjojo 1 minute ago

@billdiscodancing slowburn ***enemies to lovers cross-country romance ao3 fic fixed it for u sis

Lucas stares in horror at his phone screen. He scrolls past the comments - pointedly ignoring any with even a whiff of the words ‘threesome’ or, god forbid, ‘throuple’ - and up to the offending tweets from a certain _other_ Lucas.

In his head, he calls him VDH just as the internet did, but seeing _this? _Well, he deserves the very nice and totally not robotic-sounding mental classification of Lucas Version 2.0 – Lucas V2, in short. He mentally files the name under ‘second-rate Lucases,’ right under Lucas Grabeel (the guy who played that one guy in High School Musical he keeps forgetting the name of) and Lucas of Pokemon Diamond (a game he’d pretended to be way too interested in during primary school just to avoid talking about girls).

Sure, he called Lucas ‘lovely’ and had that polyanna-looking emoji next to his username. However, Eliott’s name had not just a heart, but _three _hearts next to it. One heart is cute, but three? It’s practically the emoji equivalent of not-so-discreetly handing someone your room keycard with an unsubtle wink and a pat on the ass. What the hell else is he supposed to think?

Lucas isn’t petty. Not at all. Rather, he’d say he’s just mentally organized i.e. clearing his headspace of clutter like two-week old grocery lists, annoying radio earworms, and V2’s tweets.

“I’m blocking this guy,” Lucas says resolutely, scowling. “He’s obviously trying to get with you and I _cannot_ stand for that.”

With his head pillowed on Lucas’s cotton-covered thighs, Eliott is currently fighting a losing battle to stifle the giggles threatening to erupt from his mouth.

“It’s not funny.” At this point, he knows he’s pouting but can hardly find it in himself to care. He lowers his phone, blowing up Lucas V2’s profile photo; Eliott cranes his neck upwards to squint at the screen. “Look at this guy. He obviously went ham on the smoothing filter – only aliens or reality TV stars are this poreless – not to mention the Instagram filter. Not sure if this is Crema, Ludwig or Amaro.”

He ignores Eliott sort of doubling over trying to suppress his laughter, pinching the skin on Eliott’s collarbone to keep him steady, to no avail.

Eliott regains himself, plucking Lucas’s phone from his hands. He blows up another of Lucas V2’s photos, the one where he stares doe-eyed at the camera while sunflowers bloom behind him. “Yeah, he’s... very—“

“You better watch the next words out your mouth, Demaury.”

“… Aligned with a certain aesthetic,” Eliott concludes with a flourish.

“And I’m not?” Lucas scoffs. “I don’t see you appreciating my HujiCam selfies like this.”

Eliott taps a finger to his lips in a show of thought, settling Lucas’s phone down his stomach. “Although now that I think about it, he has a certain beauty to him, too. Very pretty. Maybe it’s the air up in the Netherlands? I hear there’s less pollution.”

“You did not just say that,” Lucas squawks ungracefully, mouth agape.

“What?” Eliott adopts a look of abject innocence, blinking owlishly up at Lucas. “I didn’t mean to imply there’s more pollution here in Paris, Mr. Lucas I’m-A-Member-Of-The-Paris-Climate-Change-Commission Lallemant.”

“That’s _not_ what I’m getting at and you know it, you absolute _ass_—“

Before he can continue, Eliott’s sitting up and grasping his face with both hands. His eyes flicker to Lucas’s lips.

In another universe, Eliott’s the kind of guy Lucas would admire from afar but never would have the guts to talk to, his heart fluttering every time Eliott would spare him a second-long glance in the hallway. But that’s another story in another stranger’s universe.

In this universe, wherever and whenever this is, Eliott’s face is so close that Lucas has to cross his eyes to see Eliott properly, all stormy eyes, sharp lines, and effortless charm.

“Baby. Sweetheart. Darling. My love.” With every embarrassing endearment out Eliott’s mouth, Lucas feels the temperature under his collar rise up a notch. And worse, Eliott says it as if he means every word, the sparkle in his eyes growing brighter as he looks at Lucas with purpose. Damnit. Eliott’s very existence gives Lucas a fever. “Have you forgotten who started your now-famous moniker of ‘most beautiful boy in all of France’? In case you think that was me being facetious or taking the piss out of you—”

“No, it’s very on-brand of you, actually,” Lucas interjects - or manages to choke out. He loses focus of every comeback poised like plastic bullets about to fire off his tongue. Nothing else except for Eliott’s long, warm fingers over his flushed cheeks, under his ears tinged pink at the tips, down the back of his shivering neck.

In these moments, Eliott is something of an ambassador for love - because he reminds Lucas that love is much about being in a near constant state of longing as it is about connection. That he can miss Eliott (his face, his smile, his _hands -_ god, his fucking hands), even when he’s standing in front of him. Even when Eliott sits so close their chests almost touch. Even when Eliott’s making him one of his inedible dinners, or listening to Lucas go on about another indie rock band he discovered on streaming.

“— Speaking of on-brand.” Eliott kisses a path from Lucas’s ear down the side of his neck, and something wild shudders fully awake in Lucas. “You of all people must know it’s hardly on-brand for me to, using your own words, get with someone like him. He’s beautiful, yeah. But so is almost everyone I work with on gigs. Besides, blonds aren’t really my thing.”

Lucas can’t help the slight smirk tugging across his mouth as he closes his eyes and savours Eliott pressing a trail of open-mouthed kisses across his jaw and onto the column of his throat. The touch of tongue and scrape of teeth sends shivers burning through his skin.

“Yeah. I’d almost forgotten about Lucille. Pretty, statuesque, and most importantly, brunette - _oh shit,_” he cuts himself off, his head falling back. A small moan escapes as Eliott’s hands venture higher, gracing over his nipples.

“Don’t sell yourself short, choupi_. _You’re two out of the three things you listed.”

Lucas would send a withering glare of death aimed Eliott’s way if only Eliott’s hand isn’t lingering just above the band of his sleep shorts.

Eliott lifts his head, looking uncompromisingly aroused - pupils blown wide, face flushed, eyes with intent. “I’d replace statuesque with cute beyond all measure. Or adorable. Or just plain ol’ breathtaking.”

Eliott, thank the lord, finally pushes his mouth up from its cozy position assaulting Lucas’s poor neck, and seals it over Lucas’s lips. They slide into a slow, hot, open kiss. Eliott groans, collecting Lucas still closer. The kiss grows, deeper and wetter, until Eliott’s tongue moves with long, seductive strokes, dipping and teasing and pressing. Learning. Testing.

Lucas loses himself a bit - because he always does when it comes to Eliott – and nips at Eliott’s lower lip. Eliott lets out a greedy, needy little growl of a moan that doesn’t sound like Eliott, but someone else entirely, someone with more fire and fury than his otherwise sweet, demure best friend-turned-boyfriend. It feels like a new side he’s yet to discover about Eliott; he’s endlessly curious about this man who is neither the amiable book nerd Eliott, nor the insufferable moniker-inventing Eliott, so much that when Eliott breaks away an inch, Lucas nearly honest-to-god _whines_.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous, baby. Believe me. No one can or ever will come close,” Eliott breathes, and the sound of it belongs to that third persona Lucas can’t quite place yet, the one who kisses him with such fervour it leaves Lucas’s knees weak.

He leans forward, wanting to chase the feeling of Eliott’s lips on his. His body thrums with the desire to feel Eliott’s kiss again.

Eliott’s mirroring him, ready to meet him halfway. Lucas’s heart expands in inverse proportion to the gap between them closing, _closing_—

A cleared throat behind jars them both from the moment.

And just like that, reality reasserts itself.

“So I didn’t think I’d be coming home to a tonsil exam in the living room.” Mika’s looking down at them, lips stretched into an amused grin that reads downright sinister.

Eliott smiles back sheepishly. His hands are still on Lucas’s hips. “Hey, Mika.”

Mika’s knowing gaze feels like a homing radar for tracking down spiking heat signatures. He addresses Eliott, winking in greeting. “Hey yourself, handsome. If I recall correctly, it was _barely _a month ago when I’d find you two sitting here getting high or watching some dumb tv show with a dozen beer bottles on the floor. And now—”

Lucas grouches as he smoothens his hair back to a semi-normal state. Eliott settles back down beside him, looking unruffled to the untrained eye; he’s had plenty of practice in quickly schooling his features into whatever expression he needed to project in the moment.

Lucas just pretends not to notice Eliott casually putting a throw pillow in front of his crotch. 

He mentally groans. Yet another reminder that he and Eliott have yet to go beyond prolonged, heated make-out sessions, fumbling touches, and one time, a handjob from Eliott that he has yet to reciprocate. Though he’d very much like to. God, he _wants_ to. He forces himself to think of anything but dragging Eliott into his room and pushing him onto the mattress, pulling his jeans down to his ankles, and putting his mouth around Eliott’s—

“Now I see you’re getting a head start on a medical career as an ENT specialist, Lucas. What gives? I thought you wanted to be an astrophysicist – _ow_! That’s going to _bruise_!”

.

5,734 comments

**lucallemant ✔️ 😍**  
****

3478 likes

**eliottsleftnipple** do you guys ever think about #elu and @lucallemant seeing THIS every night & just, idk, die?  
****

527 likes

**lucasdroolcatcher **@eliottsleftnipplethis is me speaking from the great beyond. hi mom!

52 likes

**lucaslallemunch **hello 911 i’d like to report a mass murder cos m. demaury just straight up slaughtered us all

391 likes

**eliottsfootscratcher **@lucallemant u are sO DAMN LUCKY pls APPRECIATE this EVERY NIGHT for THE REST OF UR LIFE

723 likes

**lucasnosehairtrimmer **who tops or bottoms??? @lucallemant be lookin like a bottom cos he pocketsized af but gives off BVE as in big VERS energy tbh and chaotic gays like him r usually vers. @srodulv looks like he enjoys a good dick down evry now n then so……

122 likes

**pumpk1nsp1ce **WTF are these gross sexual comments?? it’s gotten so much worse after elu revealed they were dating ughhhh pls stop tagging lucas in the comments so much 2ndhand cringe

89 likes

**sherl0ckedonbakerst **@pumpk1nsp1ce nevermind the comments the fckin UNAMES are next level gross

38 likes

_I miss you, baby,_ Eliott writes in their chat a few hours into his shoot. He follows it up quickly with, _Gonna send you something to read while I’m away_.

This time, he’s in Lyon for a two-day L’Officiel Hommes shoot. The theme has something to do with progressively shedding articles of clothing to reveal bodily truths (_You make it sound like a stripper thing when you say it like that_, Eliott’s indignant voice comments in his head). Lucas imagines Eliott hunched in the makeup chair as the hairstylist fusses over his hair, smiling like an idiot at his phone.

_Shoot,_ he types back. Then, after a beat: _Is it the latest Pulitzer Prize winner? The Overstory? I read it’s about trees. I googled it and everything. Not sure if I’d be into that but I’m willing to try if you say it’s mind-blowingly good._

_Nope. Better_, Eliott types cryptically.

A few seconds later, Eliott’s attached file sends: _SALAD.PDF_

Huh. Eliott’s not one to send enigmatically named PDF files. The usual suspects are emojis (Lucas half-expects to be flagged any day now for abusing the kissy face emoji over the course of just one month), Gossip Girl stickers (he’d never let Eliot live his one-time guilty pleasure down), Rick and Morty reaction gifs, cat memes, youtube links to puppy videos, and lengthy restaurant reviews complete with high-resolution food porn photos.

Well, Eliott never sent PDFs ever, period. Consider his curiosity piqued.

He opens the document on his phone’s PDF reader –

And is met with the most excruciatingly, criminally awful combination of sentences ever put together on anyone’s screen.

> _SALAD.PDF_
> 
> Rating: Explicit
> 
> Fandom: Vloggers/Youtubers
> 
> Relationships: Eliott Demaury/Lucas Lallemant
> 
> Characters: Eliott Demaury, Lucas Lallemant
> 
> Additional Tags: Eliott is a hot alien, Eliott also has tentacles, Lucas is a shy human boy with a secret tentacle fetish, Alien AU, Tentacle fic, Anal Sex, Rimming,69-ing, Face-Sitting, Jackhammering, Tentacle Penetration, Eliott loves tossing salad, It’s Lucas’s salad in case it wasn’t obvious, Right in front of all your salads
> 
> Stats: Words: 18,534 | Chapters: 6/? | Comments: 45 | Kudos: 122 | Hits: 735
> 
> **Happy Halloween Mr. Demaury, Please Toss My Salad**
> 
> eliottdeMOANrys
> 
> _This was it. It was finally Halloween, his favourite holiday, and he was about to fuck an alien from the distant star of Polaris. He still had no idea what that meant. But nerves weren’t as important as how amazing Eliott’s tongue tasted. He expected Eliott to taste weird but he tasted sweet like candy. It felt nice and fuzzy like a giant furby doll cuddled around his heart._
> 
> _Something curled around his thumb. Another curved over his wrist like a wet bracelet, twisting around and squeezing. His breath stopped as he felt the tentacles pull him forward. The tentacles slithered like a snake and wrapped around his waist. It was a writhing mass of moist appendages that felt like a million tiny squid legs attached to the hottest guy to ever walk the galaxy._
> 
> _He looked down and saw Eliott’s large Polarisian cock standing like a mast in rough seas, bobbing to a sexy rhythm because it was attached to a sexy owner. The head going up and down reminded Lucas of those bobblehead toys in any Uber driver’s car. It was cute. But also hot because Eliott was hot._
> 
> _“I want to suck your dick,” said Lucas, looking like a thirsty hoe up at Eliott with his big baby blues that sucked Eliott in like a giant blue whirlpool (a/n: imagine the color of clorox blue toilet bowl cleaner)_
> 
> _“Okay,” said Eliott._
> 
> _Lucas dropped to his knees like Jesus had just risen from the dead and told him GO FORTH MY CHILD AND PROPAGATE THE EARTH WITH SOME HOT HALFIE HUMAN/ALIEN BABIES. He buried his head between Eliott’s legs, feeling all of Eliott’s 14-inches filling his wide open mouth. He sucked and slurped determinedly on Eliott’s alien dick like he was Willy Wonka licking at an everlasting gobstopper trying to get to the center._
> 
> _While he was sucking and trying to form a vacuum (vortex?) with his mouth, Eliott spoke. “Lucas, I want to enter you.”_
> 
> _Lucas wanted that too. He wanted Eliott to enter him like a contest. A contest where Eliott had all the entries and all the chances of winning._
> 
> _“Okay, BUT.” Lucas blushed like a spring chicken roasting in a pressure cooker. He also wanted Eliott to eat his plump and juicy ass. His ass deserved it. It was an ass so perky that even people with Brazilian Buttlifts were jealous. But he didn’t know how to say it._
> 
> _“I know what you want because I can read your mind, remember? My Polarisian telepathy tell me you want me to do what you humans call ‘salad tossing’ on your precious place,” said Eliott. His tentacles colored dark purple with excitement (a/n: imagine the color of the eggplant emoji or Barney the Dinosaur)—_

Eliott picks up at the second ring, already half-snorting, half-guffawing like a dumbass.

Lucas breathes through his nose. _Zen_, _he could be zen. _He endures Eliott laughing for a solid two more minutes. 

“Eliott. What you sent was tantamount to an act of _terrorism _on my eyes. No, scratch that - on my _entire being_,” Lucas says when Eliott’s fit subsides.

“It’s creative!” Eliott clearly has zero sympathy for his own boyfriend. Some love of his life he made.

“It’s a public service announcement for the benefits of illiteracy is what it is. Ugh, how could I unlearn reading skills,” Lucas groans.

He could _hear_ Eliott’s wicked smile in his next words. “But did you get to the part where the tentacles—“

“I’m hanging up on you if you even _think_ about finishing that sentence.”

“Okay, I won’t.” Eliott’s easily concedes with a laugh, and Lucas heaves a put-open sigh. “You gotta admit. Your fans have the wildest scenarios cooked up in their stories. It’s kind of endearing, especially when it’s so… fantastical.”

“Fantastical is one way of putting it,” Lucas says dryly. “It’s bizarre! I mean, ‘fantastical’ is you and me being princes in warring kingdoms and falling in love, or rival spies and falling in love, or meeting at freaking Hogwarts while sorted into opposite houses and falling in love. But oh _no_, story me just had to be obsessed with Halloween and giving blowjobs to fucking 14-inch _tentacle dicks_—“

“Story Eliott’s dick wasn’t a tentacle, though. It says somewhere around halfway through the story that it’s _built_ _just like a human dick, only slimier,_” Eliott corrects cheerfully and unhelpfully.

Eliott’s always been a bit off-center. He doesn’t fit the usual mold of models, neither the sad-eyed brooder, muscled he-man or bug-eyed waif that were mainstays in any fashion spread Lucas would see on instagram or the magazine racks. In the same way, he also wasn’t your typical literature and art aficionado, as much open to reading pulp fiction paperbacks and two-euro comic books as he was devouring Woolf and Baudelaire and Barbery. Low art and high art were just categories to him, outlets for the same spirit of creativity, neither better nor worse than the other.

It’s no wonder Eliott would rather read terribly written erotica than watch pornhub. Lucas can imagine a younger Eliott, all knobby knees and lopsided smiles, armed with only a library card and an imagination. And in the stacks of adult romance he’d hide and seek and read, and read and read and read, until a sneaking hardness brushed against the denim. At that age, he could register words in his whole nerves. He couldn’t always register touch.

Besides, the film inside your head, as any reader knows, is sometimes better.

Still. _Tentacles. _He sort of couldn’t jump past that obstacle yet.

“I’m not even gonna ask how or _why_ you’ve read up to the midway mark. And that’s not the point,” Lucas grumbles, more to himself than Eliott. “And worse, it’s annoying how fan stories are way ahead of us. I haven’t even put my mouth anywhere near—“ He stops before he lets it slip, taking a deep breath.

Eliott falls silent on the other end. After a few moments, he speaks, the sound a little breathless like he’s pressing a kiss to Lucas’s ear.

“I really do miss you. All the time. I think about you at night when I’m out alone. During shoots, too, when they ask me to like I’m looking at someone far away. Sometimes I just… I just look at our photos together, or watch your videos. In one of your videos, someone linked this forum, I think? Of all these stories. Some are cute. A lot are romantic. And then a very select few are just so hilariously bad I’m choking when I read them. But no matter how terrible they are, it’s still you and me, you know?”

Well, now Lucas feels sort of bad for snapping at Eliott when he puts it like _this. _Goddamnit, he is so fucking weak.

“You idiot. I miss you, too.” He cradles the phone to his ear, rendered helpless under the lull of Eliott’s voice. “You could have started with _that _and then maybe, just maybe, I would’ve gotten to the midway mark.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for the next time. There’s another weird one I found the other day. The worldbuilding was something else. It took cues from wolf heirarchy, like Alpha and Omega…”

“Wait, wait. The next one? I haven’t even processed the tentacle porn and now you’re telling me there’s also wolf porn?”

“Werewolf porn, actually.”

Lucas shakes his head at nothing in particular. “Am I the alpha, at least?”

“You’ll have to read to find out.”

Honestly, he can’t bring himself to stay annoyed or even exasperated. When Eliott gets like this - laughing like his belly aches with the effort of it - Lucas’s heart skips a beat in his chest.

He wonders if the fluttering in his stomach will ever go away whenever Eliott talks like he’s cradling Lucas close even when they’re miles apart, or when he thinks of the lowering sunlight lighting up Eliott’s eyes, making his smile seem ripped from an oil painting. He doubts it.

.

**mydeerlulu **1 hour ago  
****

sound the alarm cos the #MostBeautifulBoyInFrance is FINALLY doing a beauty video!!!!! for charity but sTILL!!!!

2k likes

**presidenthamilton **1 hour ago

LUCAS PLS DO A FULL FACE OF MAKEUP THOSE CHEEKBONES+LIPS ARE BEGGING FOR IT

1.1k likes

**olaflexx **3 hours ago

my suggestion: try the waterproof mascara at the beach or in the pool! :) so excited for your next video bb

428 likes

**viktuuriwalk **2 hours go

for those wondering what the ‘needs suggestions’ part is all about just skip to 7:47 lucas needs ways to try waterproof mascara. @lucallemant love you dude but PLEASE put timestamps next time

1.3k likes

**clexfromsmallvile **30 minutes

why are y’alls suggestions so lame? if u REALLY wanna test waterproof mascara you have to test it in the shower. and with eliott cos why not #chooseelu

2.5k likes

One great thing about doing the channel is he’s had the chance to discover how to truly take care of himself. And not just in the way he’s told to take prolonged baths or a do-it-yourself pedicure or whatever marketing noise he’s subjected to from the brand emails he gets on a daily basis. It’s being in tune with himself, finding holistic processes in his life that make him productive, happy, and balanced. The version that best knows how to hone his admittedly dry, sardonic sense of humor into something charming instead of generally crotchety. The version that can afford all his necessities, pay rent on time, and visit his mom regularly. The version that has the time to study for midterms, edit videos, hang out with his friends, and go on dates with his boyfriend.

Yeah, he still gets drunk on weekends, occasionally high, and sometimes he gets less sleep than what’s recommended for a guy his age. But he’s eating better, having less migraines, walking around more, and just feeling lighter overall. Maybe it's because he's more self-aware now. Maybe it's because he's so deep in love.

Judging from the comments he gets, the so-called 'glow' from being in love shows on his face, too. They say his skin looks naturally airbrushed and highlighted; cheekbones are pronounced artfully, never gaunt or hollow; his eyes clear and bright; his hair looking so soft and bouncy that he’s gotten more than a few fans stopping him down the street to ask - often incredulously - if he _really _does nothing to his hair in the morning.

He’d say at this point that he’s pretty secure with his face. Almost all of it, anyway.

Maybe it’s a weird bit of serendipity when he gets a random comment on instagram one day: _Your eyelashes are sublime._

The PR package from fucking Chanel of all brands comes the next day. When he opens it, a tube of _Inimitable Waterproof Mascara _falls out, along with _Bleu de Chanel_, their _Hydra Beauty _line, and a few other baubles. A brand rep texts him a few hours later saying the mascara’s actually a mistake - their agency messed up with the packaging, she explains - and she hopes it won’t deter him from trying out the skincare line or the perfume.

And it’s funny because he’s always felt a bit of self-conscious of his long lashes. He’d once tried to cut it off, a few years before he’d met Eliott. A boy in primary school had told him boys shouldn’t have lashes as long as his - _only girls have lashes this long, you’re not a girl -_ and he was duly shamed. Cutting his lashes until his eyes resembled that of a ragdoll’s combined two things dear to the adolescent heart: rebellion and self-criticism. And in that case, he also had the added whammy of ingrained contempt for the silly little quickstep of his heart around boys, as well as his crumbling home life. 

“Cutting lashes makes them grow longer than before,” Eliott tells him once he opens this up, a few months after they’ve met and began hanging out in earnest without the prying looks of Yann and Arthur, nevermind the ever oblivious Basile. He stares at Lucas’s face with something akin to awe. “That’s why they seem even longer now that you’re older.”

“I didn’t know that.”

A soft smile stretched Eliott’s lips. “Kids can be dumb, even cruel. But I’d thank the boy who told you that. You’re now twice as blessed with the envy of every girl in Paris.”

He’d snorted at the time. “What? Lashes so long they’d double as fakes?”

A laugh bursts out Eliott’s throat. “You don’t believe me now, but you’ll see.”

Fast forward to a few years later, and here he is, sitting cross-legged on the carpet and holding a tube of Chanel mascara up to eye-level like it’s about to reach out and poke him blind.

“How about trying it out while on a run? Or at hot yoga? I know you’ve been wanting to go ever since you got that free 5-class pass from Tigre Yoga,” Eliott calls over his shoulder.

He’d slipped into the apartment post-shoot, pressing a quick close-mouthed kiss to Lucas’s lips then declaring himself starving after undergoing a one-day juice detox for another physique-focused editorial. Leaning against the counter of the kitchenette in a simple model off-duty look of fitted white v-neck and dark blue jeans, he looked unfairly gorgeous in a way that anyone microwaving leftover garlic pasta had no right to be.

Lucas wrinkles his nose. “And have mascara running down my face when I get up all sweaty from downward dog? No thanks.”

“You’d look nice in yoga pants at least.” Eliott walks over with two small plates and some forks, handing one to Lucas who sets it down on the floor. He tucks his feet under his thighs when he sits next to Lucas, leaning over to inspect the package with his free hand.

“Just nice?”

Eliott smirks, glancing askance at Lucas’s back and making sure Lucas can see. “Beyond compare. Peerless. _Transcendent._”

“You’re basically just a pervert with a dictionary,” Lucas mutters without bite, smiling. He places the mascara back in the package, gaze wandering back to his laptop. “I’m thinking of doing the mascara video and just donating everything I earn from that to charity. Maybe SOS Homophobie or NGO Urgence Homophobia. I don’t do beauty videos anyway and it’s such a deviation from my usual content, so…”

“That sounds great.” Eliott’s face radiates unabashed pride and Lucas fights to keep from kissing Eliott for being so fucking precious.

“Anyway, I was thinking of taking the commenter up on the pool suggestion. Maybe at the hotel after Vidcon.”

Eliott turns his gaze on to Lucas’s laptop screen, pointing with his chin. “Oh, I like the shower suggestion. I’m kinda miffed I didn’t think of it first.”

Lucas raises a brow. “You want the internet to see me in the shower? Eliott, I’m running a family-friendly, wholesome channel over here, not a camboy stream. Don’t know what those are like but I’m pretty sure showering with mascara running down their faces isn’t their idea of a good time either.”

“No, dummy.” Eliott rolls his eyes. “I meant the part where _I _get in the shower with _you_. Mascara or no.”

Lucas blinks, cheeks growing warm. “What - you mean right now? I just showered an hour ago…”

It hits him that he hasn’t seen Eliott fully naked yet. Sure, he’s seen him splayed out in the most blatantly seductive poses on the pages of his spreads or on his advertorials, but not on his _bed_ or anywhere near Lucas’s own naked bits.

Somehow they keep getting interrupted, either by people (Mika’s nosiness really makes a great case for the listicle in his head entitled ‘101 reasons to contemplate an eventual moving out’ ) or circumstances. Sometimes, they're invited out and they’re both too tired to do more than cuddle when they stumble home tipsy, Lucas literally falling into Eliott’s arms, snoring and drooling away on Eliott’s sweatshirt up to the wee hours of the morning. More often, Eliott’s away on an international shoot, or Lucas needs to catch up on his class readings after hours spent editing photos and videos.

“Nah. Can be any time.” Eliott looks at him with a fond smile. His eyes crinkle at the corners, gaze maybe lingering a moment too long on Lucas’s face. A very Eliott thing to do these days. “Had to shower after the shoot, too. All that makeup and oil and hair product doesn’t feel great stuck on your face and body while on the train.”

“Okay. Any time sounds good.” He leans over and places a soft kiss below Eliott’s ear, and doesn’t miss the surprised exhale escaping his lips. He runs his hand under Eliott’s arm and over his chest and flat stomach, sliding through seams of muscle as if graphing them. He whispers, “How much time do we have now before we have to go out to meet Yann, Idriss, and the others?”

“We have all the time in the world,” Eliott replies, his voice rougher than it otherwise would be, and turns his head to catch Lucas’s lips with his own.

.

3,285 comments

**lulueteli **we stan a beautiful and charitable KING

420 likes

**ryangooselings **such a great initiative! wish others were more like you @lucallemant

632 likes

**k****imetsunoyaybuh **pls tell us @srodulv’s coming to #vidconldn2020

591 likes

**akgaeforlucas **people please vidcon is JUST LUCAS stop involving his fckin bf all the time u dont see lucas in E’s fashion shoots do you??

73 likes

**timmyshawarma **@akgaeforlucas thx for bringing it up babe! PETITION TO HAVE A DUO SHOOT FOR @lucallemant + @srodulv LIKE if you agree!!! if this gets more than 1k likes we’re bringing it to change.org

3925 likes

“I can’t believe _I’m_ now in London and you’re the one stuck in Paris.”

Eliott’s sleep-scratched voice turns fond. “Baby, if you keep talking, you’re gonna miss the panel.”

“Pssh, you just wanna see me next to _that_ guy so you can laugh at the livestream when you see my face looking all _get me outta here, I’m sitting next to a man-stealer_.”

He’s barely had enough time to sleep before the VidCon Rep knocks on his door and tells him he has around an hour to get ready. Serves him right for taking a red-eye flight to London, though it’s not really his fault. He needed to let his professors know he’d be gone for about a week (because of course he’d go sightseeing and do all the requisite touristy things, who even knows when he’d get the chance to go back to London, after all). As a result, he's left with a fuckton of additional readings and assignments he has to submit if he didn’t want to lose his good standing.

He has the phone on loudspeaker, Eliott’s humming crackling through the receiver every so often. He’d just ordered himself room service because he hates showering on an empty stomach, and he’s not really in the mood to go out the room and get breakfast downstairs. He clears a space on the queen-sized bed to deposit his luggage, picking through the debris to find his outfit for the day: a black coat, black skinnies, and his now infamous gray hoodie.

He gets dressed quickly, taking a look at himself in the mirror and deeming his face acceptable. His hair could use some work, but it’s not as if his fans aren’t used to seeing his hair all mussed up. Over the months, he’s come to take the phrase ‘just got fucked hair’ as a compliment.

“Anyway, I’m off. I’m kinda nervous, honestly. What if I end up tripping over my words and looking like an ass?”

“You’ll do well, you always do. You have this tendency to think you’re really bad at something then turn out to be so great at it,” Eliott assures with a laugh, as if remembering a distant memory.

Lucas rolls his eyes, but there’s fizzy-bright current running through his stomach. “I’d love to hear the rest of this elaboration of my super great qualities, but I really gotta run. See you on facetime tonight?”

“Wouldn’t dream of missing it. Goodluck and have fun, chéri. Tell me all about it later.”

Lucas makes obnoxious kissing noises at his phone, Eliott trying to one-up him, before hanging up.

.

His chaotic act always riles up the masses, and now is no different. When he runs to the stage, waving like a maniac, all he hears are ecstatic screams and fervent chanting of _Lucas, Lucas, Lucas_. Cheers pour in, compliments and love declarations abound. He’s not one to classify himself as a natural attention-seeker or a semi-narcissist. But for today, he’s allowing himself to soak it all in and _feel_ how much impact he’s had on the hundreds of people staring up at him with pure adoration and wonder in their eyes, as if he really is all the superlatives they say he is.

Lucas V2 - _Call me Luc, _he’d said with a pretty smile on an equally pretty mouth that irrationally irks Lucas -sits beside him with his legs crossed, waving to the crowd in thanks. Even under garish fluorescent light, he looks like a literal angel. Some people just projected great on-cam but looked like a potato in real life; Luc is decidely _not_ a potato from any angle. Lucas already half-expects someone to ask Luc if he thinks _he _should crown himself ‘the most beautiful boy in the entire European continent.’

Luc’s just finished answering a question about his filming schedule, since he apparently uploaded very early in the morning in his home country. Lucas notices he answers with an air of easy confidence, no filler words like _umm _or _uhh, _as if he’s practiced his answers in front of a mirror.

“It’s your turn, nametwin,” Luc says, startling Lucas out of the whirlpool raging in his head. He smoothly hands the mic over.

Oh. _What’s the question?_

“Sorry, can you please repeat that?”

The girl at the mic stand smiles up at him in understanding. “I was saying that it’s been a little over a year so far since you started vlogging and you’ve already gained such a big audience. How do you feel about becoming an internet celebrity in such a short amount of time? Were there any difficulties and how have you coped with it?”

“Well,” Lucas begins, leaning forward with elbows resting on knees, “up to now there’s still this huge part of me that thinks it’s all so surreal. In my personal life, I don’t think it’s become such a big deal - except that I now have more and I’m able to share more. I had a lot of difficulty making sense of everything when I started. I didn’t know how to edit _anything_ before… to me, editing was just slapping an insta filter on a photo and calling it a day.”

He pauses. The audience's chuckles taper off. 

“I began accidentally, so sometimes I tend to think of things like me gaining more followers or subscribers as accidental, too, if that makes sense. There’s always a bit of luck and timing involved in everything that goes viral. I was just one of the very, _very_ lucky ones to make it further than a one-off…”

Gasps and curious murmurs suddenly ripple through the crowd. Lucas blinks to focus where what looks to be a tall guy in a baseball cap, a loose white printed shirt, and jeans rolled up to his ankles is coming to the front. Is that—

The guy takes his cap off. “Hi, I have a question for Lucas Lallemant.”

The crowd explodes in wild, rapturous cheers. _O__h my god, it’s Eliott! Eliott’s here! Eliott, you’re so hot! I love you, Eliott!_

Lucas almost drops the mic. He suddenly can’t speak, throat tightening like a vice. 

“Oh wow, photos don’t do that face justice. He really _is_ gorgeous. Congrats,” Luc murmurs, nudging Lucas on the shoulder. Well, so much for calling him Luc; he’s mentally demoted back to V2 just for the comment alone. “Would you know if he has a brother? I tried asking Robbe and Isak from the other panel but their own gorgeous boyfriends are solo children, so.”

Eliott looks like he ran a marathon to the venue, hair in disarray and eyes just a little too bright. “I want to ask if you believe your success has more to do with you than with luck? Because of who you are and how much happiness you bring everyone who watches you. Not just the people who watch you but your friends, your mom. I want to ask if you can see how much the people in this room love you—“

People cheer at that, as expected, but nothing prepares Lucas for the next words out Eliott’s mouth.

“But not as much as _I _love you.”

Lucas is maybe going to go deaf when the hall erupts into a frenzy.

The only thing he can think of when he holds the mic up to his lips is: “Really, Eliott? You hijacked my IG live and now you’re hijacking this panel, too?”

Eliott’s smile can stop entire trains on its way home. “It’s on-brand though, right?”

.

> **VIDCONLDN 2020 PANEL 2 CON REPORT: Lucas L and Lucas VDH #LucasPower 🙌**
> 
> So guys I’m just typing this from memory so please bear with me!!!
> 
> FIRST OF ALL: OH MY GOD LLMNT AND VDH ARE BOTH SO BEAUTIFUL IRL I’M CRYING BECAUSE I’M NOT WORTHY??? #BLESSEDT
> 
> SECOND OF ALL: WHAT. A. PANEL. And it’s all thanks to the surprise appearance of everyone’s favourite model bff-turned-bf after a series of “will they or won’t they” videos, posts, and months of speculation: ELIOTT DEMAURY. Yes, Mr. Elite Model himself hauled ass to Vidcon LDN not only to support his boyfriend but to actually ASK at a panel and tell him how much he loved him!!! JFC I’M TELLING YOU GUYS WE ALMOST ALL DROPPED DEAD ON THE SPOT. If y’all thought Eliott saying ILY on an IG live was the killer moment, then prepare to be reborn and die AGAIN. If you were there you'd think Eliott was gonna get down on one knee and PROPOSE. Turns out he skipped the proposal and went straight to the wedding vows LOL.
> 
> The rest of the con report after the jump!!! I’m still on a post-panel high so please forgive any typos!
> 
> (read more)
> 
> TAGS: #vidconldn2020 #lucas lallemant #lucas van der heijden #eliott demaury #vdh is an irl botticelli painting #vdh said cherub rights y'all his beauty is unreal #vdh is a sistine chapel angel come to life #llmnt is for fuckng reals the most beautiful boy in all of france IT IS NOT A JOKE PEOPLE #but his beauty's so approachable ykwim?? #they're not intimidating at all they're both super sweet #by your powers combined i declare you both capable of killing us all #eliott is a god irl i'm wheezing #if you bottled the combined beauty in the room you could create atom bombs #i honestly am not breathing right now #someone please upload fancams of elu walking around the venue hugging fans #speaking from the grave #when will elu stop making us all feel extra single #chooseelu #ELU FOREVER 

> **Video Description**: Hi guys, THANK YOU for coming out to meet me at #VidConLDN2020! I’m so humbled by everyone’s love and support. The past days have been so overwhelming, truly. It was so great to meet everyone and to have everyone share their stories with me. I hope you all enjoyed as much as I did. I have no words except thank you thank you thank you ❤️❤️❤️VidCon vlog will be up in 2 days!
> 
> In the meantime, here’s my trying Chanel Mascara vlog as promised! All proceeds will go directly to the various charities that are near and dear to me. ENJOY! Love, LL x

**693 Comments**Sort by: Best

**kitkattakethewheel **3 hours ago

spoiler alert: the mascara is NOT waterproof… in the pool. AND I OOP—

1.2k likes

**clexfromsmallville **3 hours ago

FUCKING CALLED IT

1k likes

**captiveprincess **40 minutes

wtf @lucallemant you can’t just verbally report you and eliott trying it out in the shower and NOT have any FOOTAGE??

732 likes

**armandohammers **2 hours ago

spare elu photo? spare an elu photo in the shower for world peace anyone?

622 likes

**tardiswhovian **2 hours ago

lucas pls tell us you’re not pivoting content to one of those channels who review food and cosmetics as sex toys just cos u have a bf now

163 likes

**creaminthecenter **1 hour ago

so what’s clingier: mascara in the shower or eliott’s **** in lucas’s ****

484 likes

**paulruddsgardener **1 hour ago

eliott’s hand in lucas’s hand? 🤔

931 likes

**srodulv** ✔️ 30 minutes ago

@paulruddsgardener 😜

2.1k likes

**lucallemant** ✔️ 30 minutes ago

eLIOTT

2.7k likes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please feel free to send me prompts on tumblr @pinkplanetaries 💚
> 
> finally: thank you to A, A, D, and K for vetting the peanut gallery comments and the fic within a fic (lol), to my dear @surrealsunday for the encouragement (ily so much and i'm vibrating with excitement for your new fic hhhh), and most of all, thank YOU so much for all the kudos and feedback in the previous chapters 🥰


	4. bonus: press + media

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> technically not a new chapter since there are just bits and pieces that’ve been lying around for a while. with this non-chapter, this influencer lucas au is officially and definitely done! happy holidays, all! x

I. _Into the Gloss_

**LUCAS LALLEMANT, CONTENT CREATOR**

“I recognize there’s a bit of irony in me, a native Parisian, doing self-care and skincare. We’re supposed to not care, they say. We do, though. In the comfort of our flats, most people like to take care of themselves in some way. The key is not to be so into it that it borders on obsession. I guess it’s why my content is relatively simple compared to others.

I’m aware that - perhaps more than any other city - this particular place has a reputation. The common belief is: you have a city full of beautiful people, what do they all have in common? Nonchalance. Effortlessness. Indifference. As a native, I can say we try to make it seem like we have it together all the time, but if you asked we’ll just be blasé about it. We prefer to divert our out-and-out passions elsewhere. So when I’m not doing something related to my videos or trying to finish my thesis, I like to play videogames with my friends, go to concerts, and argue about movies with my boyfriend. I’m sure you’ll agree these are all very productive ways to spend my time.

A year ago, if you asked me if I’d still be doing videos, the answer would’ve been ‘Are you high?’ I didn’t think I’d have the time. Keeping up takes a lot of work. Videos now are very trend-driven but I still prefer the basics.

After I did my first masking instagram video - by accident - I never once thought about trying to police myself or my thoughts on products. It was embarrassing, yes, but it was me. If I was a little younger I would’ve been so self-conscious. One thing I learned after coming out was being unapologetic about who I am. There’s an entire discourse here about coming out in your teens and how much repression and shame is weaved into us from an early age, not to mention the sheer drama of entering adulthood already equipped with a gay identity, urgently seeking affirmation. Some of us find it with our families, friends, social media - and if you’re lucky you’ll maybe find it in all three. The argument could be made that social media validation isn’t a great barometer for anything actually life affirming… but I digress. Wouldn’t want to shoot what’s essentially my part-time job in the foot over here _(laughs)_.

I’m asked a lot if being involved in this entire world of self-care and skincare (and beauty - reluctantly) has made me interested in going to medical school and studying dermatology instead of astrophysics. Let me tell you, I don’t have the most gentle hands. Patients would hate me touching their faces. For me, ‘apply gentle pressure’ means ‘deep tissue massage.’ You can ask my boyfriend about that — no, I’m kidding, please don’t.

A lady, maybe a few years older than my mom with the most beautiful tan complexion, very elegant and with stilettos that could literally crush me, stopped me once on the street and asked me how she could get their skin to glow as much as mine. I played it cool - because I like to think I’m cool - but I was floored. You have to understand that this woman was a goddess. Rather than sell her on any expensive, over-the-counter creams, I told her it was probably because I’m genuinely, terrifyingly happy. Saying that out loud makes me think I’ll jinx myself but I like to think I’m on a good karmic streak recently.

**LOVE AND WELLNESS**

I have a confession: I didn’t work out until around two years ago, so around the time I started vlogging semi-regularly. I walked around a lot, but it’s not a regular routine. There were days when I’d just sit on my bed doing literally nothing. It helps to surround yourself with people who actually care about keeping fit. And by people, I mean my boyfriend. You’ll notice I tend to mention him a lot. He’s pretty much the reason why I’m not as much of a mess in my daily life as some people would think. I’m not advocating for total dependency on your partner, no, but he and I - we lean into each other in many ways. Our relationship is definitely a part of what I consider to be self-care.

My boyfriend talked me into going to this nice gym for about a month, but I quit. It got to a point where I was only using it to go to fancy bathrooms throughout Paris - which is as dumb as it sounds. I tried yoga when this brand once sent me class passes and free compression leggings - and pardon my language, but fuck, I have to talk about those leggings. The fabric was so snug it bordered on draconian. I tried it once - probably when I was drunk and missing my boyfriend because he’s away for gigs a lot - and those flamingo-colored tights photographed beautifully. They made me look like I was born to be viewed on Instagram, and as much confidence I’ve tried to espouse over the years, I definitely don’t feel like that everyday. My boyfriend loved it but he wasn’t too keen on me posting it for the public to see. To be honest, I wasn’t either. To my credit, drunk me still knew how to rein my potential thirst-trappy moments in _(laughs)_.

I try to incorporate a bit of HIIT in my routine. Twenty minutes for three times a week. I use a fitness app which has those audio workouts with legit trainers who tell you to work those GLUTES, which is like my favorite gym word. I love it because five minutes in and you’re already sweating like a snow cone in the Sahara.

My most consistent routine is running every morning, every day. Thirty minutes is enough but I can go longer if the occasion calls for it. When my boyfriend’s around, we’ll run together and it becomes a bit of a competition. And I gotta tell you, I hate losing, even to the love of my life. I can thank these runs for giving me whatever muscle tone I happen to have now. People who run will tell you the daily habit of it is everything, and it is. At first, it was difficult to get myself to wake up a certain time. But adjusting your everyday schedule might be the most important thing I’ve learned to do when you really want to get into shape, because this is how it becomes a habit. It has to be built into your routine just like showering, eating, and sleeping.

As for diet, I don’t believe in restriction. I eat a bit of everything. Like most people in the city, I was raised on a diet consisting of a lot of bread, so I can’t ever let go of that. Carbs are life, guys. We love to drink, which I guess is as much an age thing as it is a cultural thing. I imagine we’ll eventually transition to French and Chilean wines in a few years, but for now, we’re enjoying the luxury of being in your 20’s and not worrying about whether that fourth bottle of beer may be liable to give you gout.

**LOW-MAINTENANCE CARE**

My approach to skin and self-care is very much that of a low-maintenance guy gradually confronting the realities of being out of my teens and crawling towards towards the latter half of my 20’s. In the last two years, things that may have worked in the past might not so much anymore. Any steps that I have now deal with emerging problems and maintaining what youthful radiance I still have.

I regularly review products but people have noticed that I don’t do things like monthly favourites. I don’t do shelf tours because I don’t like to hoard. It takes a lot for me to keep a product; I give most products to my friends or subscribers. I’m lucky that my skin has kind of formed a protective barrier around all the stuff I put on it on a regular basis, because I’ve rarely developed any sort of allergic reaction or breakouts even when I’m introducing new products to my routine for a review.

Right now, my everyday routine is relatively simple. I wash with cold water in the morning with CosRx Low PH Good Morning Gel. It gets off the dirt but doesn’t leave your face squeaky. I’ve been using this for about a year and it even works for my best friends.

I follow that up with Biologique Recherche P50, which my mom got me into trying when she found out I was being watched by strangers worldwide for the stuff I’d put on my face and hair _(laughs)_. It smells like formaldehyde mixed with rotten eggs, and the first time I used it even my boyfriend wouldn’t go near me — trust me, it takes a lot to keep him away. But it’s magic in a bottle. My soul might’ve ascended the morning after using this and seeing my face in the mirror. I still looked like me, only airbrushed to perfection. It’s kind of insane and I sound like I’ve drunk the lactic acid kool-aid, but if I had to throw everything out and only keep one thing, this might be it.

My usually well-behaved skin does get bonkers around winter, so I also use La Roche-Posay Toleriane to reset and find the culprit. It calms the face and is a great moisturizer. When I get the occasional pimple, I use Oronine H Ointment, which is a Japanese multipurpose cream that just gets the job done. I don’t like thinking about things like blemishes when I’m studying for a huge exam or out with my friends. I need no-brainer products like these to help me keep this high-strung side of me at bay.

I used to be guilty of not using sunscreen everyday, but that changed when I vlogged. My subscribers all made sure I never forgot it so I have them to thank for always having sunscreen in my backpack at all times. I switch between La Roche-Posay Antihelios and Ultra Violette Sunscreen. The latter is one of two things I have my boyfriend pick up for me when he’s in Australia for shoots, the other one being Lucas PawPaw Ointment (great name for an ointment, by the way).

The thing I’m asked about the most is my hair. My friends tell me it usually looks like a bird’s about to squat and lay eggs in it, but I’m quite proud of it, honestly. I wash my hair maybe thrice a week and use Klorane Dry Shampoo to keep it clean. Contrary to what most people think, I don’t do much to it. I have thick hair, so I do a coconut mask maybe once a month, which makes the strands softer. I used to use whatever brand there was in my roommates’ shower but now I go with Tsubaki from Japan - another brand I had my boyfriend bring for me when he’s in Tokyo.

Beauty is on the periphery of self-care, even for guys, so I’ve kind of become resigned to it. I don’t use makeup except for one or two times when we’ve gone clubbing and the theme called for creativity. There are just two that stood out to me: Cle De Peau concealer, which I recall because it completely erased any traces of under eye baggage and made me look like I just slept for 18 hours when I only had 2; and Chanel Mascara, yes, that very same one I used in the video after my first Vidcon. It will stay put through anything - the pool, the shower, marathon crying to Grave of the Fireflies (shoutout to my friend Arthur for introducing me to the wonders of Studio Ghibli). And that’s all I can say about that.

It’s weird that there’s this entire ‘most beautiful boy in France’ thing that went around for a while _(Editor’s note: We reminded him it’s still very much a thing)_. Even in conventions or hell, walking the street, you will see people who are so gorgeous your jaw will hit the floor and never recover. I cringe when I hear it. There’s even some throwing around the ‘not just France but Europe’ thing which is just plain absurd. They’ve never seen guys like Lucas Van Der Heijden from the Netherlands or Isak Valtersen from Norway. I’m not saying this just because we’ve become friends from seeing each other at conventions and the like… but they're just two guys who come to mind when I think of people who fit the stringent requirements of objective physical beauty. Of course, French Elite Model Eliott Demaury is also up there with them, but I didn’t want to mention him in case you’d throw your recorder at me for mentioning him way too much _(laughs)_."

—as told to ITG  
_Lucas Lallemant photographed by Jacques Clint in Paris on July 15, 2021._

.

II. _GQ - Style Section_

**Need-To-Knows About The Newest Dior Menswear Ambassador Eliott Demaury**  
_The white-hot rising star of the modelling world lets us in on what keeps him moving forward — and why he’s not afraid to fail._

**Name:** Eliott Demaury

**Age:** 24

**In one sentence, describe yourself.**  
A man who loves.

**That’s very French. **  
_(laughs)_ It is, isn’t it? We’re very passionate. There’s no shame in that.

**What’s the best thing about being one of the most sought after models right now? **  
The best thing about it is also the worst thing, because I love travelling and feeding my mind and senses with new sights, new experiences, new friends. The privilege of travelling is something I’ll always be in awe of. But it’s also the worst because I’m away from Lucas for most days in a given month _[Editor’s Note: Lucas is Lucas Lallemant, French Influencer, Content Creator, and Mr. Demaury’s partner for two years]._

**What does it take to make a great model?**  
I feel like I’m too young to be answering that, but I’ll try my best. What does it take to make a great anything? Focus, hard work, and in terms of modelling specifically, knowing how to convey emotion with body language and your eyes.

**A lot of models eventually transition to acting because the discipline is so similar. Have you thought about acting as a possible option for you?**  
Oh, no. It’s true acting is modelling-adjacent, but I’d be more comfortable behind the camera if I ever were to venture into the film world. I’d like to tell stories through cinematography rather than act them out myself.

**Your millions of fans on social media would beg to differ. They say your eyes are particularly soulful. **  
Really? To my fans, please don’t exaggerate and lead some poor soul into believing I’m the next Daniel Day-Lewis _(laugh_s). But as they say, never say never.

**You started out doing catalog ads and boutique advertisements. You’ve done runway for Saint Laurent, print for Gucci, and now an ambassadorship for Dior. What do you see yourself doing next?**  
I try to live in the moment. I’m grateful for all of this, of course. But small indie brands are where I got my start and I’d love to continue to have those kinds of opportunities. Eventually, I’d like to move forward into a long-term career in art.

**What excites you about working with Dior?**  
Dior is one of my favourite menswear brands and working with them is a dream come true for any model. I admire the vision of Dior Creative Director Kim Jones. There’s the sense of classic luxury, mixed with subtlety, delicateness, and clean lines. Everything is thoughtfully tailored down to the last thread. If you’re familiar with the 60’s Dior Homme tailored aesthetic, it’s sort of a return to that but at the same modernizing it. It fits with my personal aesthetic as a working model.

**It’s interesting that you specify your style as a model. Is your style as a model aligned with your style during your off-duty days?**  
Yes and no. I’m a minimalist when I dress for my everyday life, when I’m not working. Some would even call it basic or boring. When I was in my teens my style was more eclectic and experimental. Now I lean towards simplicity and what Dior Homme does is very much an elevated version of that. I also like simple dressing because it’s easier to take off when I’m back in Paris _(winks)_.

**Speaking of art, you’ve recently had a piece picked up by a certain mega-dealer whom we won’t name here. How was that like? **  
Shit, that was surreal. This man, the mega-dealer— I can’t begin to tell you how much of a huge deal he is. I mean, this guy represented Warhol. He sold things like Warhol’s piss paintings. It was insane. I met him at his gallery in HongKong when when my agent set up this meeting because he’d seen the piece I exhibited at Centre Pompidou. This piece was close to me because it’s a piece inspired by love, by Lucas. He said he wanted to buy my piece and I almost blacked out. He commissioned me for two more to be fulfilled within the year and it was a bit like being in a haze. I couldn’t believe it was happening.

He called me while I was in Paris with Lucas, eating this saucy meatball sandwich with a smoothie and coffee between us, and when I saw his name, I knocked Lucas’s drink over because I stood up so fast. He’ll never forgive me for spilling coffee on his iPad — and Lucas is very vicious when he wants to be — but I found a way to make up for it.

**Shall I take a guess on that? How you made up for it?**  
Sure, but we probably have to change the rating up to R for this interview, and Lucas wouldn’t be too happy with me discussing anything to do with the specifics! Our life together isn’t as much of an open book as instagram or youtube would have you believe.

**If you could go back and give yourself advice when you first began modelling, what would it be?**  
Learn, be a sponge, and don’t be afraid to fail. You have to have a lot of heart to fail — to wake up with doubt and still have that drive to want to fail. With failure comes experience, and with experience comes achievement.

**What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in your career?**  
Resiliency and grit. Never getting too low or too high. Staying hungry. And again, don’t be afraid — of failure, your personal demons, even of success. This applies to everything in life and not just in your career. _Pas peur_. Everything falls into place if you’re brave enough to let it.

.

III. _Amateur_ _Buzzfeed Quiz_

.

IV. _An excerpt from a January 2022 _The Cut_ profile entitled **The Chosen Ones: #Elu reflect on their take-your-breath-away love story for the social media age** by Allana DeCalma_

> “He would go, ‘have you eaten?’ and think it was the most obvious thing. Later on he’d tell me it was his way of checking up, like his love language. Of course his actual love language is normally very tactile but when he’s not here he’d be calling and texting nonstop. There was even one time he told me about his rules for sexting. I just thought he was saying it to piss me off,” Lucas Lallemant says in a rapid spill of words that’s tempered by _ahh_s and _mmm_s of his native Parisian lilt.
> 
> He exaggerates only slightly the frequency with which Eliott Demaury — model, artist, and Lucas’s partner of two and half years — did ‘things’ to get a rise out of him early on in their platonic relationship that eventually transformed into a social media-savvy romance for the ages.
> 
> Lucas's ability to speak in rapidfire syllables with rakish poise fits his infamous moniker, a superlative that puts him above all other boys not just in the capital but the entire country. He is energy personified, a hair's breadth away from dizzying frenzy. He has a look best described, as one of his more than a million Instagram followers put it, "a lovely hurricane"; his hair seems perpetually windswept, and his cheeks always have a peachy glow. Often he looks as if he's spent the past three days at the beach, surfing the waves. But in fact he typically spends the majority of his days at his and Eliott's shared pad at the 2nd Arrondissement, studying to eventually earn an MA in Astrophysics from Sorbonne after graduating with honours in his undergraduate course of the same discipline.
> 
> “He's smart without even trying," Eliott gushes when I mention Lucas's academic credentials and apparent mastery of time management. Rare is the influencer who so manages to churn out content like clockwork and still stay on top of courses. "But he was very dense then. Sometimes he’s still dense now. When I was modelling in Seoul they had something called ‘charm points,’ which are really just those little personality traits that make a person endearing or insufferable. Density is one of Lucas’s charm points."
> 
> In person, Eliott seems like an American's fantasy of the chic yet somewhat distant Frenchman. While he bucks the trope in his own way, hunched shoulders and a slumped posture telegraphing vulnerability and unexpected modesty, at the same time he maintains the effortless _je ne sais quoi_ that has seen him through global stints and a budding art career. He is a low-key dresser, favoring things like charcoal black jeans, a black shirt, and simple leather boots. Incredibly warm, his sense of humor is just a little naughty and maybe a lot lovestruck. He'll describe Lucas with words like "sunshine" and "little hedgehog" and follow it up with "perverse anarchy" to describe his latest shoot for fashion house Dior where he maintains an Ambassadorship that has brought him global recognition among fashion industry pundits and insiders.
> 
> I watch them stare each other down, an invisible, electric challenge issued between two people who are essentially the internet’s most beloved French influencer couple. As I suspected, Eliott is the first to give in. He giggles with almost childlike glee, incongruous to the icy, steely visage of his professional portfolio. Lucas follows suit and they swat at each other as if no one’s in the room with them. I felt like an intruder on this strikingly intimate moment.
> 
> But Lucas and Eliott are no stranger to intruders, behind the screen or otherwise. The couple has learned to live with the hordes of digital flies on the wall for more than two years now. It's a curious push-and-pull relationship: they have both spent time alternately feeding and shying away from an audience numbering in the millions. Eliott has long been a model on the rise since before they became social media-official. When Lucas shot to internet notoriety for his missives on skincare, the attention on their relationship quadrupled almost overnight.
> 
> “I was recovering at the time from a bad romance,” Lucas says, after he and Eliott have apologized for momentarily overlooking my presence. I tell them it’s of no consequence, but ever-polite, the two weren’t having it. “Eliott was there to help me sort it all out. The day I broke up with my ex, Eliott told me I should have a mental list of my needs and wants in a partner. He said I should be unwilling to compromise. I just remember thinking he didn't seem the type to keep a list.”
> 
> "Love should be both spontaneous and intentional," Eliott quips by way of explanation. He speaks as if burdened with years of experience in the pesky business of love and heartbreak, in a tone belying his relative youth and throw-it-all-to-the-wind countenance. "People don't think it's romantic to be deliberate in matters of the heart, but that doesn't make sense to me. Love is an everyday choice, not just a feeling."
> 
> Still, Lucas says he never felt worthy of a list. He was lucky, he says, to get whatever paltry shadow of love came his way.
> 
> “The misfiring synapses in my brain always told me I didn’t deserve a list. I’m still working today to correct that. I think I’m getting better at it. After that, I did keep a list but I was always embarrassed by it. Maybe because we’re conditioned in this day and age to shunt vulnerability aside.”
> 
> “I told him to segregate his list into non-negotiables and bonuses, to keep it realistic,” Eliott adds. “It’s something I did, too, that list, after one too many heartbreaks. I’d added to it, little by little. I had to learn through experience — trial and error — what I really wanted.”
> 
> The question now is when they figured out it was the person in front of them who ticked all the boxes.
> 
> Eliott falls silent, looking thoughtful. When he thinks, he seems like he’s treading water, existing in a constant state of ebb and flow. If his mere thought process makes him a fascinating watch, I can’t imagine what effect an Eliott Demaury in motion must’ve had on the designers who seem to sing his praises.
> 
> His answer comes unexpectedly and confidently, like a riptide beyond control. “I’ve always known he was it for me. It took me a long time to see it for what it was, but that was just me being afraid of risking everything for unknown possibilities. From the moment we were introduced, I knew.”
> 
> Lucas looks honest-to-god surprised, but quickly regains himself. From his fidgeting hands and blinking wide eyes, it’s obvious to any observer how his mind works in overdrive. When his spine straightens, he speaks with almost fierce certainty.
> 
> “Mine isn’t quite as romantic, but it’s a tidbit I’ve never told to anyone before. That day I did my first live, with the mask — I freaked out, as everyone can attest. He was there for me. He held me and told me it was okay. He even washed my face because I was too drunk to do it myself. And that little voice in my head was saying, how could anyone so dumb be so lucky with a guy like this taking care of you? And this isn’t a movie. It’s real life.”
> 
> That’s a pull-quote if I’ve ever heard one. I tell them so. Both men laugh. It’s warm and inviting, like I'm privy to a secret. Despite the modernity of the circumstances — one can trace their roots to Instagram live confessions and Youtube comment innuendos, after all — I am now a happy spectator to what feels like a timeless love story pulled out of infinite universes.

**Author's Note:**

> i promised i'd give a shoutout to my wonderful friend surrealsunday, author of the amazing elu fic [tempo](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20444954/chapters/48506969) whenever i managed to churn out something, so here is me outing myself as publicist anon! our fics are unrelated, but reading her fic and conversing with her also inspired me to continue writing. please let this function as a PSA for her absolutely fantastic fic. do yourself a favor and read it! 20/10 would recommend forever and ever ❤️  



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